Angel of Death
by Lalaith Quetzalli
Summary: -AU to Nightingale.- She was an heiress, a rich girl, the daughter of the Merchant of Death, her father's little angel… but when the monsters try to destroy her, when the darkness attempts to swallow her whole; she will fall, only to rise again, in her own terms. For she's no damsel in distress, no princess in the tower, she's more, she's… (Can be Read as a Stand Alone)
1. Fallen

So... this time I'd like to tell a bit of a story about this story, if anyone cares for it. Some time ago, when I was writing the third set of AUs, I decided I wanted to write some stories where I went more deeply into other characters, the newer movies. Thus AUs like 'Midnight Songbird' and 'Mystic Bonds' were born. Then I got the idea for 'Princess of Death'. I love Tony, always have, and I had so many ideas. In fact, 'Angel of Death' was originally going to be the title for that fic (I once read one with a female Tony Stark, where that was why they called him, instead of Merchant, and I liked it). In the end I had so many ideas and they didn't all fit together, two climaxes, and that incarnation of Nightingale was too young for some of my ideas. When I got it into my head to actually make a set of AUs with alternate incarnations of Nightingale this one of the first in the pipeline.

This story gave me the chance to do something with the Starks that I never had before. I'm not going to give anything away here but I just hope you'll like it. I loved writing it.

A warning to those who might not like the Maximoff twins, especially Wanda... I hate what the MCU did with Wanda in parts of AoU and in CW. Feels to me like they cannot make up their minds if she's a villain, an anti-hero, or just an immature spoilt brat. I went down a very different road not just with her, but with both twins, something I had been wanting to do for a while. I really like how it turned out, hope you will too.

Dream-cast: Sarah Hyland as Trixie/Nightingale, Katie McGrath as Helena, Georgie Henley as Rose, Amanda Seyfried as Ylva, Shiloh Fernandez as Fenrir, Sarah Bolger as Tinúviel.

Songs for this chapter (only parts of them appear): "Turn the Sky" as sung by Angelzoom and "Someone's Watching Over Me" as sung by Hilary Duff.

* * *

Angel of Death

(Alternative Universe to _Nightingale_)

_By: Lalaith Quetzalli _

_She was an heiress, a rich girl, the daughter of the Merchant of Death, her father's little angel… but when the monsters try to destroy her, when the darkness attempts to swallow her whole; she will fall, only to rise again, in her own terms. For she's no damsel in distress, no princess in the tower, she's more, she's…_

**Fallen**

Some Fall and are Lost, others Fall only so they can Rise Again.

Sometimes Fate can be cruel, what's one more baby being lost in infancy? What's one father never knowing about the life that could have been? It's not like his would be the first or last potential to never be fulfilled. But sometimes… sometimes Fate may choose to be merciful and turn a blind eye when Destiny slips through to twist a single thread in the Tapestry. Just one, one child getting to grow up, one potential fulfilled, the two changing things more and more, until the Tapestry becomes something entirely different from what Fate once intended. But that was okay, just this once, Destiny would have her chance…

Tony Stark never thought he'd be a father. Contrary to popular belief, or at least what the media had turned into popular belief, he hadn't been having wild orgies every other weekend since starting at MIT, he'd barely been fourteen! He'd flirted a lot, there was no denying that, but truth was that Tony learned at a very early age that most people wanted him for his name, wanting money, or to be famous, not because of him. They cared about Stark, not about Tony. So he learned early on not to give such people an in.

Only two people had ever proven not to be like that: Rhodey and Trisha. Rhodey was absolutely awesome, the most incredible best friend anyone could ever ask for. He'd never seen Tony as a stupid rich brat, never tried to use him, or his money; matter of fact, the first time he'd tried to give Rhodey something, the older boy went nuts, thinking that Tony was trying to buy his friendship or something. It had actually taken a bit of time and some negotiating, for Tony to come to accept that a person did not need to buy another things for them to be friends; and for Rhodey to understand that sometimes Tony didn't know how else to show he cared. They found the way to make things work.

Trisha… (The rest of the world called her Patty but for Tony she always had been and always would be Trisha) She was a conundrum. One of the brightest mathematical minds of the century, the only person Tony knew who could do calculations in their own head faster than he did. And yet she hated it. She was only studying mathematics at MIT because her family threatened to cut her off otherwise. Her dream was to go to Juilliard, become a famous musician. The harp being her instrument of choice, and the way she played… it was perfection. Tony had never been a fan of music other than heavy rock, but she played so well, it was like being in a dream, he loved that. And just like that, he fell in love with the girl herself.

They never intended for it to go anywhere. Especially as they neared their respective graduations (they were in the same year, even if not in the same major). Trisha told him she'd saved enough money to go to New York, she even had her admittance letter for Juilliard already. She planned on going home just long enough to drop her degree in her father's office and then leave. Tony congratulated her on taking charge of her own life. It was something he admired. Especially seeing how he, despite all the time and the failed tries, he kept trying to get his father to notice him, to accept him, to love him…

If anyone were to ask them, they'd probably blame the whole night on them being drunk. Which would have been a lie. They both knew all-too-well the path drinking alcohol lead to, thanks to their respective parents, and while Tony's had never been violent, unlike Trisha's, Tony had seen him drunk more times than he cared to admit. So being drunk wasn't the reason. In the end there wasn't actually a reason, beyond perhaps both of them deciding they wanted their first time to be if not with someone they loved, at least someone they cared for. It was nothing beyond that, just sex… at least until a year later, when Trisha called to let him know he was a father.

Tony almost had a fit, especially when he understood that the baby had been born months prior and he'd known nothing about it. And then Trisha told him why. She'd tried to get in touch with him almost from the moment she found out she was pregnant, only to keep getting waylaid, by none other than Obadiah Stane. Howard's business partner and Tony's own godfather, who claimed that the last thing the Stark name needed was the scandal of a bastard son. Trisha had practically given up by the time the baby was born. And then Rhodey returned from his tour of duty… he ended visiting her first (after Obadiah waylaid him too), and he was the one to convince Trisha to try again. He had Tony's newest mobile number, as they were making plans to go out for a drink or something, celebrate that Rhodey had made it back alive from his first tour. Tony would be forever thankful to his best-friend…

And so Tony got to meet Beatrix Mariah Wilson, his daughter. His parents had diametrically opposite reactions to learning about the baby girl. Howard thought Tony had been irresponsible, getting a girl pregnant; Maria was more focused on the fact that Trisha had no intention or even the slightest interest in marrying Tony, or giving the baby the Stark name. Tony himself didn't mind either. He'd always known where he and Trisha stood, and was just fine with that. Also, he thought the baby might be lucky, not being saddled with his name; there was a reason Trisha herself had changed hers as soon as she graduated.

"I want you to promise me one thing Tony, just one." Trisha told him, the day of the baby's christening (Rhodey and Trisha's best-friend Audrey having been chosen as godparents).

"Anything you want." Tony assured her immediately.

"If something ever happens to me, promise me you won't let Beatrix end up with my brother." She told him, completely serious. "Christopher… he's a bastard, more interested in looking good than in being so. And his wife? She's absolutely, fucking crazy. I've seen their sons, and they're the last people I'd ever want looking after my baby. So promise me you won't allow it…"

Tony wanted to tell her that it'd never come to that. Nothing would happen to her and there would be no need for him to do anything… but he knew better than that. Also, he'd heard enough about Trisha's brother and his family, he wouldn't want any kid staying with them (not even their own), much less his.

"I promise." He nodded in the end.

Of course, when he promised that he never expected that he'd actually have to fight to keep that promise. Which was exactly what happened when on early January of 1990 the icy roads caused an awful pile-up in Broadway. At least half a dozen people died, Trisha among them. And that was just the beginning, as Tony then had to get into a legal fight to prove his right to be the one to raise his daughter. The Wards did everything short of cursing him personally to try and keep the child, citing themselves as a good, happy family, while Tony was a twenty-year-old rich kid just beginning to work in the R&D Department of Stark Industries.

That was when Tony realized he didn't know his father as well as he thought he did; he probably had never known him at all.

"Are you honestly trying to use my son's youth against him?" He demanded of Christopher Ward. "Tell me, Senator Ward, what's your eldest son's favorite book? Or your youngest's favorite comic book superhero? Do you remember what the first word of any of them was? I bet you have no idea. You may project the image of the perfect family, but truth is you are nothing like a family. My son? He knows what little Beatrix's favorite food is, what her first word was, and he was right there for her first steps. It didn't matter if he wasn't married to the mother, he and Patricia made it work. You and your wife may try to make a scandal of the matter, but this is the nineties, not the fifties! We now know having children out of wedlock isn't the end of the world, and having two parents in a household is no guarantee that the child would be better off than if they were to only have one."

"Mr. Stark…" The Senator began.

"I'm not done yet." Howard cut him off. "Now, we can settle this right now. You sign all rights over Beatrix to my son, today. We take her and we leave, and that will be it. Or you can try and fight us on this, then I will put every single lawyer I know on this, and I will not stop until the whole world knows exactly who Christopher and Theresa Ward are."

Theresa had such a hissy fit when learning what Christopher had done that it actually made both Tony and Howard wonder if she was like that all the time. She acted like the little girl was some kind of toy she didn't want to give back. It was sickening. They left as soon as all papers were signed, Beatrix in Tony's arms, while Howard carried a single bag with the few things of the girl that hadn't been bought by Theresa, and which the crazy woman hadn't thrown out deciding they were too cheap, too simple or too… something else, for a Ward-girl. As they left Tony couldn't help but notice the three boys on the staircase just off the huge mansion's lobby, and the very disparate looks; for while the older looked at them very much like Christopher had there at the end, with a mix of anger and disdain, the other two… they looked at them like drowning men watching the last lifeboat sail away… Tony just couldn't help himself, it was probably insane, but right as they were leaving he fished one of his business cards out of the pocket of his jeans and dropped it, discreet enough not to be obvious, but making sure that the youngest boy (Thomas) would see him do it. Hopefully it would help, somehow. Tony had no idea how, but he couldn't think of anything else either.

Once inside the car, Tony turned to look at his dad, in silence, having left Beatrix in the brand-new car-seat in the back.

"I'd never heard you talk like that, not to anyone." Tony admitted after what seemed like forever.

"Look Tony, I know I've been a shit father." Howard shrugged even as he drove. "There's no denying that. I've always known it. The war left me…" He shook his head. "And it wasn't even just the war, but what came after. I've done things I'm not proud of, more than you'll ever know. Or at least that's what I hope. The atomic bomb was bad enough, with that one I could tell myself that even if I hadn't been on the project the others would have found a way eventually… but afterwards, with the midnight gas and…" He shook his head again, and for a moment there was such self-loathing in his expression, it left Tony breathless. "I wanted to believe that things would get better. That in due time I'd get better, or you'd grow and be old enough, be able understand that it was never that I didn't care, I was just too afraid. Afraid that I would end up hurting you. That I'd do the wrong thing, say the wrong thing… I ended up screwing everything anyway."

"No you didn't." Tony admitted after what seemed like forever. "I will admit that it was bad sometimes. I was young and like you said, I didn't understand. I never understood why you never spent time with me, why you'd rather be out in the sea, looking for the perfect Captain America!"

"That… was actually less about the Captain than you might expect." Howard admitted with a sigh. "He… Project Rebirth is the only thing I've ever been involved with that didn't end up as an absolute disaster. It was the only time my work helped create something good, something that saved lives, rather than destroy them…"

Tony blinked at that one, not having expected it. While for most it should be a bit disturbing, the way his father referred to Steve Rogers as if he were a thing, that one didn't bother him much. The realization that it wasn't about the man, but what it meant, comparing Captain America with weapons (apparently some Tony had never known of, and that were much worse than anything SI had ever sold)… it did help. It let him know that his father didn't prefer Steve Rogers over Tony himself, he just wanted to feel he'd done something good. Wanted to feel he himself was good. It was an insane realization to reach, one that changed the way Tony viewed his whole world. Changed everything he thought he knew… and while on anyone else that might have made them feel insecure, maybe go crazy. With Tony it made him feel so much better, because it meant that his dad loved him, always had, he just hadn't known how to show it; Tony always had been good enough, he just had been too young to understand that his dad had as much trouble expressing himself as Tony did.

The one conversation in that car might not have made everything perfect for the Stark family, but it certainly helped, it helped a hell of a lot.

By the time of Tony's twentieth birthday it was official: Beatrix Mariah Wilson-Stark was the daughter of Anthony Edward Stark, and heiress to the Stark name (the press went absolutely nuts over that one).

**xXx**

Tony would never forget the time that followed Beatrix's official adoption and name-change. They may all have been Starks all along, but it was until the little girl joined them that they truly became a family. Even with the saddening absence of Jarvis (Edwin Jarvis, the family butler), who'd died of heart failure before Beatrix's first birthday; Tony felt like he'd never been happier. It wasn't perfect, Tony and Howard still had trouble seeing eye to eye, but somehow the little girl managed to make them more patient, more accepting of each other just by merely existing.

Maria would spend hours playing the piano for her, along with Tony. He also made sure to play what records he had of Trisha's own music for her at least for a few minutes every day. A way to allow the little girl to stay connected to some small part of her mother.

He also informed Howard early on that while he'd continue making designs and submitting them to R&D, he'd be working from the mansion. He had no intention of allowing anyone to raise his daughter but him. The little girl had already been robbed of one parent, he wouldn't take the other away from her too. Howard agreed. Much as a part of him might wish he'd done the same, he knew he hadn't been in the right frame of mind back then, being at home would have never been enough. Still, his son was in a much better place than he'd ever been, and the way Tony put his daughter first, it made Howard proud in ways he couldn't fully express.

Which was why the loss of both Howard and Maria, days before the second Christmas they were all meant to spend together as a family, hit him so hard (especially when, just two years before Tony would have cared very little about the loss of Howard). Tony was sure that the only reason he didn't lose himself in the grief was that he knew a little girl needed him. Beatrix wasn't even four years old yet, she didn't fully understand what death meant, though she did notice that grandma and grandpa weren't around anymore and her daddy was sad. Even then Tony tried to make sure she'd never have a reason to doubt his love for her.

It was shortly after the funeral that Tony had the worst fight ever with Obadiah.

"I'm not going in Obi!" Tony snapped at he got tired of his godfather's insisted.

"Why the hell not?!" Obadiah demanded. "I mean, I understand appearances must be kept Anthony, but the brat is old enough for you to send her to school isn't she? If not you can always hire a nanny or something. Even a whole bunch of them if you want. SI needs you."

"Beatrix needs me!" Tony snapped. "My daughter needs her father, especially now. She's already lost too many people. She's not yet old enough to go to kindergarten, and even if she were, I am her father, I will be the one raising Trixie, me, not an army of nannies! My father knew that I was planning on continuing my work from home, at least for a few years, he supported my decision. Nothing you say or do will change my mind."

"You're the Stark heir!" Obadiah insisted. "SI is yours!"

"So it is." Tony agreed evenly. "I own SI, but I'm not SI. There are thousand of people working for the company, each of them doing their part. I'll do mine, don't think I won't. I'll keep designing, and submitting my designs to SI, but no one says I need to be physically anywhere to do so. As for the running of the company, I know you've been doing a lot of that for years, and I doubt anyone, not you, and not anyone else in the board, really wants a twenty-one-year-old with no experience taking over."

Tony didn't even give Obi a chance to keep insisting, he just walked away.

Mama Rhodes was a godsend. She'd arrived to the mansion the day after the funeral and just didn't leave afterwards. She made sure to keep both Tony and Trixie fed and in good spirits. She almost cried the first time the little girl called her Nana.

Tony learned early on never to let Obi close to Trixie. He loved his godfather, that hadn't changed and while he didn't really understand what happened, whenever Obi got too close to the girl she would burst into tears. He didn't need to snap at her about anything, he still ended making her cry somehow.

"If you ask me, she can see that awful man's black soul." Mama Rhodes stated one day.

She'd never liked Obi, and Tony knew why. His godfather was a bit too… he could be more than a bit racist, in some ways, though it wasn't really about races, but about social standing. He knew that the Rhodes were a rather simple family, Rhodey had paid his own way to college, before joining the air-force and getting a scholarship through there. He had liked Trisha well enough, until she chose to turn her back on her family and change her name to her mother's, thus distancing herself from the Ward name. Then there were his outdated views about an illegitimate daughter damaging the Stark name. Tony thought it was absolutely ridiculous.

Even that didn't make Tony stop liking Obi. The man might have some terrible flaws, but he had always been good to Tony, had been there when his own father wasn't. And while things might have gotten better with Howard the last year and change before that awful car accident (which Tony still kept pressing the authorities to look into, because he refused to believe that his father would do something stupid behind the wheel with his mom sitting on the passenger's seat; he might have had trouble reading his father for many years, but that had changed, and Tony knew, without a doubt, that Howard loved Maria), Obi had been, for many years, one of the few adults who were always there for him. Only Jarvis had ever been more important to him.

In any case, until Mama Rhodes said those words it had never occurred to Tony, the idea that Trixie might be gifted. He knew such people existed, of course, he knew about mutants. Charles Xavier was as good as Tony's uncle, even though Tony kept himself away for the most part. His parents hadn't liked mutants much (Howard disliking the way they refused to be 'supervised', while his mother was afraid of what some, like Magneto and his Brotherhood might one day do, comparing them with the Nazis who'd taken most of her family), and he feared Obi might be the same. So he kept his distance, just making secret annual donations to the Xavier Institute. Charles knew it was him, of course but that was it.

So Tony took a weekend off and after assuring Mama Rhodes that they'd be just fine he got on his mom's favorite car (the only car they had with seats in the back, which allowed him to put in Trixie's car-seat) and after making sure that no one was following him, he drove to Westchester.

"Tony!" Charles exclaimed, going to meet him at the door. "What a surprise!" His eyes turned to the little girl hiding behind Tony's pant-leg. "And who's this little beauty?"

"This is Trixie, my daughter." Tony introduced her. "Say hi Trixie…"

The girl stepped into the open just for a moment for a very quiet and shy hi, before rushing behind Tony all over again; eliciting a low chuckle from Charles.

"Well hello little one." Charles greeted her. "I am Charles Xavier and this is my school."

"He's my uncle little angel." Tony offered.

"Uncle?" That certainly called the girl's attention.

"Not by birth, but yes, just like you call Mama Rhodes Nana, even though she's not my mom." Tony did his best to explain things to her. "She's family anyway. Just like Uncle Charles."

That seemed to make the little girl more confident as she stepped out from behind Tony and faced Charles directly for the first time. She had long, golden brown hair falling in curls around her shoulders and bright hazel eyes, and was wearing a white top with purple flowers on the sleeves, denim coveralls (she'd seen her daddy wearing some greased-covered coveralls one day as he worked on one of his cars and wanted to wear something like that, so Tony did exactly that) and purple sneakers.

"I am Beatrix Mariah Stark, nice to meet you." She recited the words that Grandma had taught her months prior, before adding with a bright smile. "But daddy calls me Trixie!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you Trixie." Charles smiled at her kindly. "And what a surprise you are."

"Is that good?" The girl asked innocently before turning to her dad. "Is that good daddy?"

"Yes it is little angel." Tony assured her immediately, though he did arch a brow at Charles.

The moment everyone was sure that Tony was a friend of the Professor students began coming out of the woodwork. Those who knew Tony greeted him, others just looked in awe at the man, not quite believing that a Stark was there. And those who wanted to be Engineers were delighted as they admired him and wanted to ask him all kinds of questions about MIT. That fascination only grew when they met Trixie. The little girl was so pretty and charming she had every mutant in the Institute wrapped around her little finger in record time.

Eventually Jean convinced Tony to let her take the little girl on a quick tour of the school, thus allowing Tony and Charles to have a private conversation in the study.

"What did you mean," Tony began straight out, the moment they were alone in Charles's study. "when you said she was a surprise?"

"Beatrix is a very special child Tony, but I'm sure you already know that." Charles murmured quietly. "After all, few children ever manifest so young, she's, what? Four?"

"Will be five next February." Tony answered with a small shrug.

"I first manifested when I was nine, Erik when he was twelve, Hank says his feet didn't begin looking any different until he hit his first big growth spurt." Charles enlisted. "Raven never did tell me when she first manifested said she couldn't exactly remember, so while I cannot be 100% sure, I can tell you, manifesting this young is very rare indeed."

"Could an NDE be a cause for this?" Tony asked after a long silence.

"A…" Charles froze when his mind caught up with what Tony had just said. "A near death experience?! What happened to that child?"

"It wasn't me!"

"Of course it wasn't you Tony! You would never hurt a child, much less your own daughter, and to the point where she almost died…"

"When Trisha first died, her brother Christopher claimed Beatrix. I had to fight for custody for months, and it didn't end until Dad threatened to ruin him. When we got Trixie, mom insisted on taking her to our most trusted physician, make sure she had all her vaccinations, etc. Dr. Lee insisted on taking the girl to the hospital to make all kinds of tests. Wouldn't tell us why, but as he believed it to be important, we went." He ran a hand through his hair. "Shaken baby syndrome. That's what the nurse said. Matter of fact, her first thought was that I'd done that to my baby girl. She was all for calling Child Services on me, until my mom told her that we'd just gotten Trixie that day, and who she'd been with before. As it turned out Theresa Ward had been shaking my little angel so much she almost killed her. Dr. Lee… he said that a few more days like that and Trixie would have died. Even if Theresa hadn't touched her again, if the doctors hadn't treated her when they did she'd be dead."

Yeah, that probably counted as an NDE. Truth was that Charles had no idea how an NDE might affect a mutant's first manifestation. He knew that desperation could help them do more for brief periods of time; there was also Jean's case, her own telepathy had first manifested upon the death of her childhood friend, her attempt to keep the other girl with her forcing her gift to manifest when she was still too young to control it. The only difference seemed to be that Beatrix did not appear to be having any difficulties controlling her ability.

"What is it that she can do?" Tony finally asked. "Can you tell?"

"Your daughter has a very… particular way of seeing the world Tony." Charles told him softly. "It reminds me this boy I met once, back in the seventies, his name was Alan and he could see auras. Except that I don't think that's exactly what she sees, I think they're emotions, or at least that's how her mind tags them."

"Trixie's an empath?" Tony was shocked.

"Still developing, but yes, I think she's heading that way." Charles nodded. "She's still learning about emotions. Also, I believe she can see the connections between people."

"Connections?"

"She sees them like ribbons of specific colors. I only looked briefly into her mind, she's much too young still and I wouldn't want to hurt her but, it's fascinating. The way she sees the world, it's all about emotions, those in people, and the way emotions can connect people to one another. Like a web in different colors."

The explanation clarified a few things for Tony. Like how Trixie had warmed up so quickly to Charles, and to Mama Rhodes before, she could see their connections to him… didn't explain why she always cried when Obi was around…

Tony and Trixie ended spending the whole day at the Institute, and Tony took great joy listening to his girl's shrieks of laughter, mentally deciding it wouldn't be the last time they dropped for a visit. Perhaps they might even stay a whole weekend the next time.

They were finally about to leave, shortly after dinner, when Charles approached them one more time. He looked at the already sleeping Trixie in Tony's arms with so much love that Tony couldn't help but wonder briefly why he'd never had any children. A question he pushed to the back of his mind as fast as it came, thanking the fact that his mind was so full of things and with so many trains of thought going at the same time that Charles couldn't truly read it (the man had told him all about it years earlier).

"She seems beat." The paraplegic mutant commented, looking at the sleeping girl.

"She is." Tony nodded. "She had a lot of fun. So did I for that matter. Well, we gotta go now."

"There's one more thing." Charles told him, just before Tony could open the door.

"What is it?" Tony tilted his head to a side, confused. "Uncle Charles?"

"I got a call from an… old friend." Charles said vaguely.

Tony's eyes narrowed, 'old friend' could mean lots of people, from the likes of Dr. McCoy, and Moira McTaggert, all the way to Mystique and possibly even Magneto!

"I was asked to pass on a message to you." Charles said, then, once he was sure he had Tony's full attention he recited: "To fight a war you need both weapons and shields…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tony asked, completely confused.

"I honestly have no idea." Charles admitted with a shrug. "But if I know her any… you'll know, when the time is right."

"Alright, weapons and shields, I'll keep it in mind then." Tony nodded.

He had no idea what that could possibly mean, though he supposed time would tell…

**xXx**

Tony always knew it was only a matter of time before people began trying to kidnap his daughter. It's not like it had never happened to him. But while Howard had gone the road of making sure Tony knew the cruelties of the world and was ready to defend himself, Tony made a different choice. He would ensure his Trixie got to be a child, as normal as she could possibly be, for as long as he could make it. And he had an advantage.

While Tony had kept JARVIS limited mostly to his personal rooms and labs before the death of his parents; as the one time he'd presented the AI to them he'd noticed both were deeply affected by the fact that his voice was so similar to Edwin Jarvis's and thus didn't want to hurt them with the reminder. Tony had done that on purposes, it was his way of remembering the man who meant so much to him, his tribute to him. Jarvis had known too, as Tony had asked him for help in recording enough of his voice and speech patterns to be able to program JARVIS's voice. Still, Tony understood that for his parents it was harder, so he kept JARVIS mostly to himself.

After the death of Howard and Maria (and once Tony was in a better state of mind), Tony arranged for JARVIS to be everywhere in the mansion. Not just as a virtual butler, but also as a much better security system than any in existence. Which was proven when less than a year later the first kidnapping attempt was made. After that one came more, none of the would-be kidnappers ever managed to make it past the first floor, much less to the third floor and the bedrooms (most never even made it inside the house).

Tony tried sending Trixie to a 'normal school', but the girl was as much a genius as both of her parents had been. The exclusive private schools were no better, as most professors seemed more interested in whatever advantage they might get from having a Stark as their student, than in providing the education they were supposed to. Also, children could be cruel, as Tony had learned himself when he was that age. When one of the kidnapping attempts happened at the school and the teachers not only failed to keep everyone safe but one was also willing to give them Trixie if she could get something from it (luckily Tony had given Trixie a special tracking bracelet that included a sort-of panic button, carefully explaining to his girl how to use it); that was enough for Tony to make up his mind.

Tony had been working on FRIDAY practically since Beatrix's 'adoption' had gone through. All along planning for the young, female AI to one day be to his daughter what JARVIS was to him. It was just a matter of adding to her programming and FRIDAY was soon in charge of home-schooling Trixie. He also made sure that she'd have the option to learn music, as that had been a very important thing for Trisha. Trixie soon showed great mastery with many instruments, among them the piano and many flutes; though her best instrument of all was her voice, his girl was a very gifted singer.

In 1994, when Trixie Stark was six, and her father 24, Tony took over as CEO of SI. Obi kept insisting on it, and with Trixie busy with her home-schooling and her music classes (those FRIDAY did not teach, after Audrey had heard the girl play and sing one day she'd gotten her a spot in Juilliard, where she took classes three days a week, mostly in instruments, as all her teachers seemed to agree that, aside from practicing, her voice needed nothing else, it was already perfect). They all probably hoped that one day Trixie would perform publicly, much like her mother had begun doing a year or so before her death.

The most important time for the day for Tony were the mornings. With Obi and some of members of the board doing all they could to keep him in the office as much as possible, Tony couldn't always be there to have dinner with Trixie, or put her to sleep; but he'd made a point to always have breakfast the two of them alone. She'd tell him about the things she'd done the day before, and about her dreams.

Her dreams… that was one thing that absolutely fascinated Trixie. It took Tony a few months to realize they were all connected, but while at some point he'd begun believing that she might be making things up to keep continuity, like creating a world for herself; as she grew and the years passed things continued. The dreams didn't change so much as become more elaborate, more detailed. And then came the day when someone else was there for that conversation… father and daughter had been spending a weekend every month or so at the Xavier Institute as a sort-of break (it also gave Tony a chance to help Charles improve security measures and the Danger Room, while Trixie loved seeing all the kids' 'tricks'). That was the first morning where someone actually joined them for breakfast.

"…and there's this really huge tree, so big and she's sitting on its roots and they're bigger than I am!" Trixie was telling him excitedly. "And there are roses everywhere. Dozens, no, hundreds of roses! In all colors! And then there's this song… but when she sings, it sounds like she's sad, why's she sad daddy?"

"I don't know little angel." Tony told him softly. "People can be sand for all kinds of reasons."

"I don't want her to be sad." Trixie murmured quietly. "It makes me sad too."

"I'm sure you'll help her not be sad anymore, you're good at that little angel." Tony assured her.

Truth was, he'd no idea what else to say. How could he possibly help when he'd no idea what those dreams were all about? It's not like he'd ever had any dreams that could compare. For the most part he hardly ever remembered his own dreams, so he had no experience. It didn't matter, by then Trixie was distracted, singing quietly, probably the song from the dream-elven-princess.

"But if I was a flash in your daydream

One day you'll see my sign

I will wait, I wait"

Trixie put her breakfast dishes away and began walking, almost gliding out of the kitchen. Tony knew Charles had promised to continue teaching her chess and she was eager for it. However, before he had a chance to follow she was distracted by Jean, standing on the other door leading into the kitchen and looking at his departing daughter with eyes so wide it was almost comical. Even as they both got to hear the next stanza in the girl's song, a song that sounded much too odd for someone so young to be singing. And why hadn't Tony caught onto that part before then?

"I turn the sky to dive into your dreams

I'd turn the sky to fall into your dreams

A million times for you

I hope, I beg, I pray for you"

"Jean…?" Tony inquired of the young teacher.

Jean Grey was younger than Tony, but already a doctor and a science teacher at the Institute. She was also, according to Charles, one of the most powerful mutants alive… or she'd be once she faced the piece of her personality Charles had locked away when she was younger and it came dangerously close to overtaking her (something that would have pushed her down a path of self-destruction, as she'd been much too young to endure, much less control the full scope of her power back then). Tony had always had a healthy amount of respect for her, to the point of even holding back his usual flirty attitude the first few times they'd visited; until she made clear that she knew it was who he was and he meant nothing by it. Since then they'd made a game of it, either amusing or exasperating most around them. At least the boyfriend didn't get mad, Scott was well aware it was all a game. Jean loved him and Tony had yet to find a person he could love as much as those two clearly loved each other.

"What did you see?" He asked her straight out.

He knew that, as the mutant began to slowly assimilate the other piece of herself, and with it her full power, it sometimes got away from her, mostly her telepathy. Which meant that sometimes she'd see into people's minds even without meaning too.

"Are you aware that Trixie, and the princess she speaks of, are the same person?" Was the first thing the redhead asked.

"I know." Tony nodded. "Not quite sure she does, though. At times it seems like it, and then she'll go back to speaking of her like she's a separate person but, who knows?" He shrugged. "That's not what made you react like that though."

"No, it's…" Jean seemed to fight to find the right words for what she was thinking. "I don't think she's dreaming, not really."

Tony arched a brow at that. He had something in mind, but wanted to hear more first.

"The pictures in her mind… they're much too clear for dreams and they lack that… misty quality all dreams have." Jean did her best to explain. "I would almost call them memories except for the fact that it's impossible. She's much too young and I've never seen a place like the one she dreams of, with all those roses and the white ash tree… I'm sure if there were a tree that big anywhere on the planet we'd know."

"What about another life?" Tony suggested out of the blue.

"What…?" Jean was not expecting that.

"What if, like you say, those aren't just dreams but memories?" Tony said more clearly. "Memories of another life, one where she was an elven princess?"

"Where is this coming from Tony?"

"I've never told anyone this, not even Uncle Charles but… something happened to me, right after we finally got Trixie. The first night she spent in the mansion. It took forever to get her to sleep. The place was new and I was the only person she really knew. In the end she only fell asleep when I laid on the bed beside her, with her head on my chest. Later on… I was more asleep than I was awake, but I remember this figure, a woman wearing a green cloak, so long it brushed the floor, hood up so I could only really see the corner of her face, porcelain white skin and a single lock of raven black hair. She extended a hand, also pale white, and touched Trixie briefly, before whispering something I couldn't understand. I've looked it up, it's not any language from this world, or at least none that is on record anywhere."

"So, what? A dead language?"

"That, or another world."

"You know how insane that sounds?"

"Any more insane that people with the power to read another mind? To move something through the power of their minds alone? To shoot lasers from their eyes? Trust me, I know how it sounds, it happened anyway. And it wasn't even just that, she turned to look at me then and then spoke. She told me: 'Take care of the little songbird… he's waiting for her'."

"He's waiting for her?" Jean parroted, brows practically disappearing into her hairline as she fought to come to terms with that.

Of course she'd be surprised by that part and not by the whole 'songbird' thing, they'd all heard Trixie sing at least once, the nickname was apt.

"Probably the very same she's waiting for." Tony pointed out, more calm than anyone would have expected, considering it was his daughter involved.

"I don't think she knows she's waiting for anyone." Jean offered.

"I'm sure she doesn't." Tony nodded calmly. "I think she's much too young. It's why she also hasn't realized she's supposed to be the princess. She's too young to see herself in that light. I'm sure it'll keep until she's ready. Whoever's waiting for her can wait a few years more."

It was insane, beyond that even. Tony was a man of science, he should find things like other worlds, reincarnation, soul-mates (for what other way was there to define one person waiting for another through lifetimes?) beyond impossible… but he didn't. It didn't matter if the only things close to proof (Trixie's dreams and his memory of the cloaked lady) were flimsy at best. A part of him still believed. And so, he waited too…

**xXx**

The first time Tony heard from the Wards, was about a month after he and his dad took Trixie. Grant Ward, the middle child, called him one afternoon, apparently in secret, only his little brother Thomas was with him, and they spent the next hour or so talking about inconsequential things. Tony didn't understand the point of it, but the call repeated itself the next week, and the one after that, and the one after that… until it became part of his weekly routine. He got it eventually. The boys had such a shitty life, calling Tony on the phone was a bright spot in their week, possibly one of very few. It didn't matter what they spoke about, the call alone was enough to give them an anchor. They could tell Tony anything, and know he wouldn't judge them. They never asked him for help though, either not believing he could give it, or knowing that just trying would cause all sorts of trouble.

He knew when Theresa began fostering that girl: Emma Swan (who looked like a princess, according to Tommy's description). Tony was also the one to place the anonymous call to Child Services after Christian's actions caused her to break her arm, telling them just enough to make sure that not only they wouldn't send Emma back, but ensure the Wards wouldn't be fostering, much less adopting a child ever again. What he really wasn't expecting was the call he got from Tommy less than a month later.

"What do you mean Grant's in juvie for burning your house?!" Tony was beyond shocked at that. "Wasn't Grant in military school?"

Tommy was inconsolable. Apparently he'd heard his mother moaning about wanting a little girl, pressing Christopher to make it happen. Tommy had worried, knowing how Christian was and that he might do worse than what he did to Emma; so he called Grant to tell him. Tommy had no idea what had happened next, other than Grant had started a fire in the house, apparently with Christian inside. He was arrested and sent to Juvie; Christopher wanted him to be tried as an adult for attempted murder (Christian had always been his favorite). The worst part was that even when he went looking, and put JARVIS on it, Tony just couldn't find Grant. Apparently there had been a bit of a riot in the Center the day before, during visiting hours, and Grant was missing; no one knew what had happened to him exactly. Some claimed he must have taken the chance to run, but there was no proof of anything.

Since there was nothing he could do for Grant (hard as it might seem to believe, the boy appeared to have vanished into the ether), he did what he could for Tommy. Taking advantage of the fact that Social Services was already doing an investigation, trying to find out why Grant had done what he did. All Tony needed was a few anonymous tips, a comment here and there, and some clever hacking. By the end of the month Tommy was under the guardianship of his grandmother: Penelope Wilson (once Ward, but she'd taken back her old name after what was apparently a very messy divorce). The woman was quite old already, but Tommy was thirteen and self-sufficient for the most part (Tony also set up a college fund discreetly, knowing that the old woman would never be able to put her grandson through college and there was no way Christopher would be willing to pay it after what had happened). Christian was completely unaffected by the whole thing as he was eighteen already and about to leave for college.

The only thing that surprised Tony more, was when he got yet another unexpected call a month later, from an unknown number, only to discover it was none other than Grant. Then to track the boy to a cabin in the middle of freaking nowhere!

"Come on, lets go." Tony said, the moment he saw Grant standing outside the cabin. "Whose place is this anyway?" He shook his head. "You know what? It doesn't matter. Lets go, if we leave right now I'm sure we can be in Long Island by dinner, Tommy and Mrs. Wilson will be delighted to see you, I'm sure."

"I can't go anywhere." Grant finally spoke.

"What do you meant you can't go anywhere?" Tony really didn't like the sound of that.

He liked the rest of it even less.

"You told us that SHIELD was important." Grant said solemnly once he was finished explaining all that had happened to him since John Garrett had first appeared at the Juvenile Detention Center. "That your dad was one of its founders, that it was meant to protect people. HYDRA won't protect people, they will hurt them. And John… while I do feel bad for him, that he was abandoned, left to die, what he's doing is still not right."

"No, it isn't." Tony agreed. "I'm glad you can see that. It still doesn't explain why you think staying with that madman is a good idea."

"Because he thinks he has me." Grant explained his line of thought. "He thinks he's all I have anymore. He left me thinking it'd break me, mold me into a tool for him to use. I intend to let him believe that, until I'm in a position to be of help. HYDRA needs to be taken out, and I will do all I can to help achieve that."

"You are aware this is dangerous." Tony wasn't actually asking, he knew Grant wasn't stupid. "Grant… you're just sixteen. We have no way of knowing how long this will take or…"

"Or even if I'll still be alive by the end of it." Grant finished for him. "I know. I still think it's worth it. I don't know what HYDRA might be planning, but it cannot be anything good, and if they ever get enough power…"

He didn't need to finish, even if neither of them wanted to really imagine what the crazy bastards might do, it certainly wouldn't be anything good. And it wasn't just about them, about Tony and Grant, they each had people they cared about, and whom they wanted to protect.

"If you ever need me, whether it's an emergency, or you just need to rant at someone, call me." Tony told him after a moment. "Any time, night or day, I will always be available to you Grant."

"Thank you Tony." Grant nodded.

"And however long this might take." Tony added for good measure. "Always remember that you have a home waiting for you with me and Trixie."

"Thanks… Uncle Tony." It was the first time the boy called him that, and they both liked it.

It almost pained Tony, leaving Grant behind that day, knowing that there was nothing he could really do to help him. Still, he made sure to keep his phone with him at all times and JARVIS was on alert in case anything happened. HYDRA might think they had the advantage, existing in the shadows, waiting for the chance, they had no idea… Tony would never allow those bastards to ruin his father's and Aunt Marge's legacy!

**xXx**

Legacy… it was one thing that had been in Tony's mind for a while. It began with the coming of Trixie into his life. Tony wanted his daughter to see him, what he did for a living, as more than just a man creating, selling weapons. Even seeing it as giving America's soldiers better means to fight and protect themselves, it just wasn't enough. Especially since the press had begun calling him the Merchant of Death. He'd even managed to talk with his father about it, to which Howard had shown him everything he had on the Arc Reactor, all the dreams he'd had about what could be done with that as a basis, all the ways they'd change the world… but he'd never managed. Howard believed that it was simply that the technology hadn't yet advanced enough for his dreams to be achievable, perhaps in later years… but Tony, he was a genius, even more so than Howard, and both men knew that. Howard hoped that Tony would be able to finish what he began. And Tony was trying, he was definitely was trying, but it was like he kept missing some key element, and he'd no idea what it was!

Pepper had been a life-saver, in more ways than one. Tony had met her in a most interesting manner. When she burst into his office to point out a mistake in his math. He hadn't made a single mistake in his calculations in years! The way she forced her way into his office, threatening his security with pepper spray (and he needed to get new people after that, if they gave up simply because of something like pepper spray how could they be expected to protect him from an actual criminal?!) to get to see him, throwing a piece of paper on his desk, with the painfully obvious mistake highlighted. A part of Tony had blanched in horror that he'd made such an obvious mistake (he must have been running on fumes, but really, having to go through all the books himself because apparently no one else could get them done right! And then he went and made a mistake himself!), the other part couldn't help but marvel at the lengths the young woman was willing to go to, to point it out. Especially considering that they had a whole accounting department and he couldn't believe that she was the only one who saw it…

It wasn't easy, convincing her to become his PA. Mostly because of the PAs he'd had until then. Simple-minded girls with killer-bodies and no brains (Tony honestly had no idea what Obi was thinking when he hired them). Also, in most people's minds a PA position wasn't exactly a promotion, not with how most people saw them as little more than glorified secretaries). So Tony decided to change things up, because he knew he needed more than a 'glorified secretary', he needed more than someone who'd get his coffee and run errands. He needed someone to watch his back, to give him advice when he was in a bind, to bound ideas off of, someone he could trust. And Virginia Potts was that person… Pepper was the nickname he chose to give her, his way of immortalizing their first meeting.

It was Pepper who gave him the push he needed to create Stark Tech, a new branch of SI that produced everything from phones and tablets to the most advanced pieces of technology, at the lowest prices possible. They'd overtaken companies like Apple, Samsung and many others in less than five years. He also had ideas for a medical branch, perhaps prosthesis sometime in the future, but that one wasn't ready just yet.

Tony never planned on getting involved with Pepper, at least not in any way beyond her being his PA (and perhaps one day his business partner, in ways Obi refused to be, as he was in absolute denial of SI producing anything other than weapons! As if Tony's dad hadn't been in the mining, plastic and construction businesses since forever with SI sub-companies!). It all began with Trixie calling Pepper 'auntie'. Matter of fact, she had been calling Pepper that from the very first day. Pep thought it was just how Trixie was, she'd never seen the girl shying away from strangers, even from many people at SI itself, and the way she'd still tear up whenever Obi so much as said anything to her. And it wasn't that he was trying to lead his life by the way his daughter saw the world… but he was curious. He wanted to know what it was Trixie saw that made her call Pepper auntie, and so he set out to better get to know the redhead. She was unlike any other woman Tony had met before, and certainly nothing like any of his previous PAs: clever, open-minded, unafraid to speak her mind and to let her actions speak for themselves. She supported his initiative to ensure all workers would be treated equally in SI, regardless of race, descent, religion or their genetic code. She called him on his bullshit when necessary, and she never let the members of the board, not even Obi, intimidate her. And thus, little by little, Tony fell in love with her. He never planned on doing anything about it though, the last thing he wanted was to force Pepper to endure the horror-show that would be were she to become involved with him, and once the press found out. He had been born a Stark, didn't mean he had to subject her to it. Things with Trixie were already complicated enough…

Trixie was his little angel, she always had been. It was Tony's favorite nickname for her, what he never imagined was how the press might one day twist it:

"They're calling me Angel of Death!" Trixie sobbed. "Like… like I'm a serial killer!"

Tony wasn't sure who he wanted to curse more in that moment. The press for giving his daughter such a name, or the internet, because he'd no doubt that was how she'd connected the epithet to serial killers. In the end he decided to focus on Trixie as he sat down next to her.

"You know my mom used to tell me, 'no one can make you feel bad without your consent'." He began, not sure what to say at first.

Trixie directed him a look filled with so much disbelief Tony couldn't help but snort.

"Yeah, I thought it sounded stupid too, though of course I never told her that." The more he talked the more confident Tony felt. "She was right though, in some ways. The people who try to make you feel bad, it's because they're so unhappy with who they are, they hate to see you being happy. So they'll do everything in their power to make you as miserable as they feel. The best you can do is show them that they failed. Rub their noses in it, in who you are, your happiness. Now, I know this isn't exactly easy. What I've learned is that sometimes all you need to do, is learn to turn their words, their insults against you, on them."

"How?" Trixie asked, half in interest, half in disbelief. "How can I possibly turn a name like 'Angel of Death' against them?"

"Do you know what an angel of death is?" He asked her. "And I don't mean all the criminals in history that have been called angels of death by either the police or the press."

"No…" Trixie admitted after a moment.

He took her tablet then, typing the right words in the web-browser. Truth was he had considered something like that. That someone might some day use a name like that against his daughter. They called him Merchant of Death, after all…

"An angel of death, or a destroying angel." Tony read from one of the websites. "It's an angel of god. According to the Bible, it's an angel sent out by God to kill enemies… now, we both know I'm not exactly a religious man, but that doesn't sound too bad to me."

"No, it doesn't." Trixie admitted quietly.

They found more in different websites, but it all came down to the same. Basically. Different peoples and cultures tended to see angels of death as one of two things: either as angels meant to collect the souls of the newly dead, guide them into the afterlife, perhaps even comfort them; and/or as warriors, avenging angels meant to slay the enemies of those 'god' or some higher power were protecting.

"I like it." Trixie decided after a while, face smooth and eyes clear from tears, her eyes shining like they hadn't since first hearing someone in the press say those words. "I think I will like being an Angel of Death…"

**xXx**

It was in the Spring of 2005 that Tony knew, for certain, that people at SI were dealing under the table. He had suspected it beforehand, of course, had fired a number of people over it, even managed to get a couple thrown into jail for it. But it seemed to have been a more or less isolated incidents… or that's what he was lead to believe.

It began with yet another fight with Obi. Tony was getting everything ready for the launch of the new generation of Stark-Tech products, he had even created a few new gadgets, some for the general public, and others for more specialized fields, like better detectors (of contaminants, poisons, sickness, heat, etc., depending on the model and who the potential users were). Obi had been pushing for more new weapons. Even though they had more than enough military contracts and products to keep all their buyers happy. Obi wanted more, bigger… bloodier. He kept pushing Tony to focus on that, rather than 'boring tech'. Tony refused. He had considered closing down the weapons' factories once their current contracts were over… until he remembered the message Charles passed on, about needing both weapons and shields to fight a war. It was what had prompted him to create better body armor and defensive technology. The military had liked that, enough they didn't insist on the weapons; and the fact that he'd been able to add contracts with several security agencies (including the CIA) meant that the SI shares had gone up, which in turn made the Board happy. Which was why Tony had trouble understanding why Obi was insisting so much on the matter… And then he got the voicemail.

Grant called him, or rather called JARVIS. It was a system they'd devised. A number that belonged to no one, technically, and thus no one would ever be able to find it in any records. It couldn't be tracked or intercepted, and it allowed Grant to leave messages when he didn't have the time to make sure Tony answered, or to argue about whatever tip he was giving him:

"HYDRA just got a hell of a lot of your weapons Uncle Tony!" Grant informed him. "I have no idea how this is happening, but it is. And that's not the worst part. According to what I managed to overhear, at least half of those will be sent to Eastern Europe and the Middle-East. Your weapons in the wrong hands… we both know how things will go…"

Yes they did. His weapons in the wrong hands, especially in places like Eastern Europe and the Middle East… they were going to make what were already very tense situations, all the worse. Places like Egypt, Afghanistan, Syria, Chechen, Kosovo, Sokovia, Georgia… too many places, too many innocent people!

Tony knew it was too late to prevent everything, but he needed to do all he could. So he started by freezing all business. No weapons would be leaving any SI factory, warehouse and/or facility until he'd gotten to the bottom of things. And when the board reacted as expected (with a mix of disbelief and anger) Tony snapped:

"These weapons are supposed to exist to protect Americans, to protect our people, our families!" Tony declared. "That's what I created them for, that's what SI exists for. To help our country. And now they're being used in places that were never authorized, by people who wish for conflict, for war rather than peace. That cannot be allowed, that will not be allowed. So until I find out who's behind all this and can be sure that not a single one of my weapons can be used for nefarious purposes, no weapon will be leaving SI installations. Have I made myself clear?"

He was no longer asking them. They might be the Board, they might be investors, but he was still Tony Stark and Stark Industries was his! And if he needed to go personally to every country where there might be so much as a whisper of his weapons that's exactly what he was going to do! (Not that it'd ever come to that. He'd designed those weapons, he had ways of tracking them that no one, not the military and not SI had ever known).

What he wasn't expecting was when, as he was flying to Brussels to talk to the heads of the European Union to discuss what actions might be taken, Pepper called him to inform him that there was a situation developing in Sokovia, precisely in one of the areas JARVIS had tracked his weapons to… just before a text-message arrived from an unknown number, informing him that 'they' needed him. That 'their' destinies depended on the next choice he made… Tony didn't even stop to ponder on the origin of the message, or how exactly that person (he had a very good idea who it was) had even gotten his private number. He just called his pilot to order a change, they were going to Novi Grad, Sokovia…

Things turned out to be worse in many ways, and yet also better. Apparently a plane carrying two Stark bombs to what was, in that moment, the lawful government of the country, had been shot down, presumably by one of the factions trying to take over. The bombs had fallen straight onto an apartment building in a small village less than an hour from the capital. There were at least a dozen confirmed dead, with more still trapped in the rubble. The 'better' part was that either the bombs hadn't been armed before leaving SI, or whoever was dealing under the table was doing so with defective products, for it was clear neither bomb had detonated (there would have been nothing left of the apartment building, or of anything in at least a block, if they had been).

Tony called Pepper to inform her of how things were going and to get her to handle things back in the States. He wasn't expecting it when it was Trixie who stepped up and spoke about what was going on in the impromptu press conference rather than Pepper, or even Obi, yet seeing her there, in the light-gray skirt-suit, hair pulled back in a bun and showing herself to the world as Beatrix Stark, Tony Stark's daughter and heiress (and recently graduated from college with Master Degrees in Public Relations and Linguistics)… he was so proud… and then one of the reporters called her Angel of Death, probably expecting to rattle her, to make her falter, but that was not who his daughter, his angel was…

"Thank you." She smiled beatifically at him. "That's exactly what I am. What both my father and I will be, angels of death, as we deliver justice upon those who've decided to misuse the weapons my father created. We will ensure that a tragedy like the one that just happened, that is still happening right now in Sokovia, never happens again."

Tony was sure he'd never been more proud of his baby girl!

It surprised him not at all when she arrived to Sokovia less than twelve hours after the press conference, with a team of volunteers, all carrying some of the brand new heat detectors, and other pieces of tech, intending to use them to check for survivors and to make sure they wouldn't make things worse while getting them out.

In the end there were only two survivors. A pair of eight year old twins, their parents had been killed when the first bomb had gone through their apartment (and many others), the other had stopped at their floor. Miraculously both had missed them. Tony had to deal with the authorities as they confirmed that there was no one else to rescue, and he eventually found his teen-aged daughter sitting on a cot in the volunteer tent, the twins nestled against her as she sang to them:

"So I won't give up

No I won't break down

Sooner than it seems life turns around

And I will be strong

Even if it all goes wrong

When I'm standing in the dark I'll still believe

That I won't give up

No I won't break down

Sooner than it seems life turns around

And I will be strong

Even when it all goes wrong

When I'm standing in the dark I'll still believe

That someone's watching over

Someone's watching over

Someone's watching over me"

"Someone's watching over me"

She looked up and straight into Tony's eyes the moment the song finished. They weren't even alone in that moment, her song apparently drawing quite a bit of attention, but she paid none of them any mind. The female twin, Wanda, followed her line of sight a moment later, and then her brother, Pietro. They stared at Tony with trepidation.

"That's my Papa, his name is Tony Stark." She informed the twins. "He came to Sokovia to make sure the rescue efforts began right away. And he's been making sure that all the dead will be given a proper funeral."

"Mama and Papa too?" Pietro asked, her voice watery.

"Of course." Trixie nodded immediately.

"You saved us?" Wanda asked Tony, rather than Trixie.

"I wasn't the one who got you out, though I did what I could to get the volunteers here, and the equipment…" Tony began, not quite able to stop his babbling.

He broke off as Wanda shot out of the cot and straight into his arms. For a moment Tony didn't even know what to do. Aside from his family (by blood and choice) no one had ever embraced him. Eventually he managed to get himself into gear and closed his arms around the little girl, who by then was holding onto him more than hugging him. But he understood, it couldn't have been easy, spending so many hours laying in the ruins of your home, waiting for rescue… and the girl was barely eight years old!

"You're so brave little one…" Tony found himself whispering as he ran a hand through her hair. "So very brave…"

He looked up in time to see his angel smiling at him beatifically, her arms around Pietro who wouldn't let go of her, even as he kept an eye on his twin sister. It didn't look like he would be ready to let go any time soon… then again, neither did his sister.

**xXx**

He was right, more than even he could have expected. As was proven when, a week later the two Starks returned to the States with the twins in tow. The adoption hadn't gone through yet, even for someone like Tony Stark things couldn't be rushed that much. But Trixie Stark was proof that Tony was a good father, and the full investigation Child Services had done on him when he was fighting the Wards to get full custody of the girl also helped. With that, and the fact that the twins had no living family left, it had been allowed to have the Starks take them back to Malibu.

"You do know Auntie Pepper's gonna blow a gasket over this, right?" Trixie asked her dad softly.

Tony nodded quietly. Trixie was probably underestimating Pepper, all things told. He knew that Pep just wasn't ready to be a mom, knew that a part of her had liked when Trixie kept calling her auntie instead. Even knowing that Trixie was empathic, Tony was quite sure that Pepper hadn't yet realized just why Trixie had chosen to call her auntie, rather than anything else, just how much the girl understood her, understood them all. He knew the twins joining their family was going to force them to have a long, serious talk about them, their feelings, their future… and Tony still sucked at such talks. But he loved Pepper, very much. And the twins… after little Wanda had fallen asleep in his arms, having thanked him time and again for saving her and his brother; after learning that the two were all alone in the world… Tony just couldn't leave them. It didn't feel right. The twins needed him, needed them, judging by the way Pietro wouldn't let go of Trixie, and if Starks were good at something it was holding onto those they loved.

They made it all the way to LA just fine. Weren't even surprised when Happy wasn't there, and instead another driver had been sent to pick them up. Tony had given instructions for Happy to stay with Pepper at all times, as both driver and bodyguard. With everything going on, the last thing he wanted was someone moving against Pepper. After the events in Sokovia he'd gotten the agreement from the EU to go ahead and detonate his weapons from a distance (after JARVIS had tracked them down and they were all sure that the destruction wouldn't affect any innocent civilians). It was something Tony never expected to reveal, the fact that he could do that, even after his weapons had left SI (though thus far he was making it seem like such security measures were usually disabled, but this time they hadn't as the sells hadn't been legal and thus those who handled that part of the process hadn't been around to do it). He was still in talks with the various representatives of the Middle-Eastern governments to do the same with the weapons JARVIS had tracked to their territories. He could go ahead and do it already, but he'd rather not lose the good will of government leaders unless there was no other choice (if he got so much as an inkling that a situation like that in Sokovia, or worse, might happen, all bets would be off).

They were halfway to Malibu and their home when Trixie, who'd been quietly humming to the sleepy twins to keep them from being nervous, snapped to attention abruptly.

"Angel…?" Tony began, confused.

"Everybody get down!" She screamed, even as she pushed Pietro off her lap and to the floor of the car, covering him with her own body.

Even having no idea what the hell was going on, Tony did the same with Wanda and just in time, for just a second later there came a hail of bullets…

The driver was dead almost immediately, the car stopping abruptly as, one by one, all the wheels were shot. There was glass everywhere, and Tony had just a moment to wonder what the hell had happened, because his cars (or the ones they brought out when the situation called for it) were all supposed to be bulletproof, chassis and windows; and yet while the body of the car was holding up to the hail just fine, all the windows had shattered and the bullets were getting in… and then all thought was forgotten when he heard his daughter let out a pained cry.

"Angel!" Tony screamed in terror.

He wanted to do something, needed to, to protect her… but he couldn't move. They were a sitting target and he had to keep Wanda safe! They were supposed to take the twins with them to protect them and instead only ended putting them in the line of fire!

Trixie opened her mouth to say something, probably to try and settle Pietro who was shaking and crying beneath her, but all that came out was a small whimper. There was so much pain… never before had she felt, or even imagined, such pain!

"It's okay, we're going to be okay…" Tony began babbling, not really believing it.

He had to protect his family, his kids… and then as he looked down, at Wanda, he couldn't help but notice as her steel-gray eyes flashed red all of a sudden, and then the red began pouring out, like lava. It ran over him, like warm water, and soon it was enveloping all four of them, and the car… and Tony vaguely noticed that he could no longer hear any bullets hitting the car.

"Wanda…?" He asked, concerned. "Honey?"

"Sis…" Pietro whispered, raising a hand to touch his twin's.

Tony couldn't see it, and Trixie wasn't all there anymore, but his eyes were glowing blue.

"They will not take another family from me!" Wanda yelled in self-righteous anger.

Her eyes went brighter and the red all around her, all around them, seemed to explode. The last thought to run through Tony's mind was a prayer to whatever higher power there might exist that someone would save his children…

**xXx**

When he woke up… Tony Stark couldn't help but feel that he was in absolute hell. His daughter, his angel, was in a hospital bed, in the ICU, hanging onto life by a thread, and most of the doctors didn't even understand how she was still alive! Several bullets had hit her in her back and her hips, so many of her bones were shattered it had been near impossible to move her when the emergency services had arrived. He had no idea who had thought of immobilizing her in the exact position she was in before getting her out but thanks to that… it was miracle but despite how many muscles had been torn, bones broken, some even shattered, her spinal chord remained intact. The bad news? Too many of her bones had been shattered to the point where they couldn't just be rebuilt, and they couldn't all just be substituted either.

"That many bones substituted with metal? It cannot be done, for many reasons. It's too different from the normal bones. Her body is already so damaged, there's no way of knowing if she could even take such a transplant; if anything went wrong we risk damaging her spinal chord, and that would make things even worse… And in the most basic terms, a human body simply isn't made to carry that much weight… it's just not possible."

That's what the doctors told him. And while some doctors were beginning to work in what was sure to be a revolutionary technique with 3D bio-printing… they were nowhere near ready for a case like Trixie's.

Didn't mean he was going to give up, just like things may not happen as fast as he'd wish. And he was going to hate having to tell his angel that she wouldn't be walking, not for a few years (he refused to accept the 'never again' prognosis).

To distract himself, and to feel he was doing something useful, Tony sought to find out what was going on, who was responsible for the attack on his family. It took a few days, and in the end it was Pepper who told him what was going on:

"It was Obadiah Stane, Tony." Pepper told him when she got to the hospital. "I… when he got ahead of things, announcing the attack, reassuring the investors and the public that SI would go on… I couldn't help but feel suspicious. One of the doctors had just called me, since I'm your emergency contact, they told me you were alright, just some cuts and bruises. Told me that Trixie was in a bad way but hanging on, and about the twins… so why then was Stane saying something like that?" She shook her head, mostly to herself. "I got into your office. Yes, the one you never use and used that thumbdrive you gave me for emergencies, the one that has JARVIS's extension on it. He went through the computer and managed to find everything. Stane's the one who has been dealing under the table. He's been doing it for years! Even before your parents… and when you froze all activity… He had all the windows in that car changed, had it all planned out…"

"He knew I wouldn't stop until I found the one responsible, that I would discover it was him, and he couldn't allow it." Tony was getting a very clear picture all of a sudden, the worst kind. "He must have known Trixie would have never allowed it. So he had to get rid of us both. He couldn't have known about the twins…"

"Tony, I didn't know about the twins." She reminded him with a small smile.

"Pep…" Tony didn't know what to say to that.

"I didn't exactly plan on becoming a mother this abruptly, you know?" She commented, almost flippantly. "But when Child Services came calling, they wanted to know who they could speak with, and that obviously was going to be me. And once I talked to them, of course they'd never keep it quiet, so we're officially engaged and soon to be parents of a very cute pair of orphaned Sokovian twins."

Tony's mouth dropped open having no idea what to say to that, and when he saw the ring on Pepper's finger. The ring he'd bought just for her and kept hidden in his lab because how could he possibly explain to her that he'd gotten the thing before they'd even begun dating?! It was absolutely insane. And there was no way Pepper would ever want to marry him if she knew he was that crazy, except apparently she'd found out, somehow, and she'd taken it, and put it on, and they were officially engaged! Tony's mind rebooted at that and he practically jumped out of the sofa where he'd spent way too many hours waiting for his angel to wake up, gathering his beloved, his Pepper, in his arms and kissing her till neither of them had any breath left.

"G-get a… a ro-oom…" A croaky voice interrupted them eventually.

Two heads snapped to the side instantly. Tony's so fast he was sure his neck would be aching for a while, but none of that mattered the moment he saw a pair of beautiful hazel eyes blinking slowly at him. His angel's eyes…

"You're awake!" He exclaimed, the mix of joy, relief and love so strong there were tears falling from his eyes before he even reached her side.

Trixie tried speaking a few times but kept failing. Until Pepper brought a glass of water with a straw close enough for her to take a few small sips.

"Are the twins okay?" Trixie finally asked, voice still low and a bit husky, but much better.

"They're just fine." Tony assured her immediately. "Missing you like crazy. In fact…" He moved just enough for Trixie to see the other bed in the room, where Pietro and Wanda were sleeping. "They've refused to so much as leave the room, so we've all been staying here."

"Which is probably good, all things considered." Pepper offered.

They were interrupted then by the arrival of a nurse, later another, and then even doctors as everyone became aware of the fact that she'd woken up. There was no chance for more conversation until about an hour or so later. Tony at least managed to keep himself distracted by entertaining the twins so they wouldn't worry too much about Trixie and end up getting in the way. It was almost funny because they'd hardly known each other less than a month and already they were all so attached, including (especially) Tony.

Then, once the doctors were gone, the twins hurried to her, climbing on the bed, each on one of her sides and cuddled her while Tony explained about the twins being gifted (Charles had been flown to the hospital in LA where they all were in that moment), mutants to be exact, and of Magneto's bloodline too! Explained how it was Wanda's wild manifestation that protected them from any more bullets and then it had destroyed the guns and knocked out the assassins. Allowing for emergency services to get there and for the authorities to arrest them. It was insane. Trixie thanked Wanda warmly and then kept holding them until they fell asleep.

No one said a thing after that for a while, as if no one knew quite what to say…

"So," It was Trixie who broke the heavily-charged silence. "When exactly is anyone planning on telling me I'm probably never going to walk again?"

Pepper's mouth actually dropped open at that, while Tony just closed his eyes for a few seconds and exhaled. He'd known it was coming.

"I may not be a mind-reader, but I don't need to." Trixie murmured quietly, not really looking at anyone. "I can feel their sadness, their… their pity. Like losing the use of my legs makes my being alive any less miraculous. Like I'm not whole anymore, like… like I'm a cripple!"

"Listen to me." Tony said fiercely, taking hold of his daughter's chin and turning her gently but firmly so she was looking straight at him. "You are not a cripple, you will never be a cripple. Because whatever might happen to your body, your mind, your heart and your soul will always be too great to be contained by anything as simple as flesh and blood. You're my angel, Trixie; you will always be my angel…" He made a completely abrupt decision as he added. "And if you cannot learn to walk again, then I'll teach you how to fly!"

* * *

As always full-sized poster/cover and set of wallpapers can be found in my DA account.


	2. Rising

Here we are, with the second and last part of Angel of Death. As usual, I'm very proud of how this turned out. This will go a lot into Captain America - Winter Soldier. While I only really began hating Steve in Civil War, while reading some Team Iron Man fics I began to realize how insane some of his previous actions were. Specifically concerning the events in Winter Soldier. While I'm all for his 'It all goes', and I've shown that in the main timeline, as well as many AUs, where I ensure SHIELD goes and stays gone, the fact is that by his actions (theirs, as Romanoff, and to a certain point Fury too were involved) they risked a lot of innocent lives. I don't know is the creators never considered it or they just didn't want to (then again, I ask myself the same regarding a lot of what went down in CW, and in Endgame, so...). So I decided to do a different take on that this time.

Someone mentioned in a review that they liked that I make Grant Ward a good guy. I'll admit I haven't always done that. When I began the Nightingale-verse I made Skyeward the pairing because it was easy, but to be honest I didn't feel much for them. Then they made him a traitor and I hated him (and I took a liking to Coulsye). And then, in between watching more AoS and reading some really good fics, I realized the huge injustice they dealt Grant. Phil was always going on about second chances, well, where was Grant's? And not just that, but to send him back to his abuser? To treat him like a tool... it wasn't fair. If they wanted him to be a villain, they should have made him a villain, and if not, they should have allowed him to redeem himself, instead of going hot and cold over and over until they simply didn't know what else to do with him and they killed him. Also, I believe that the framework arc proved to many of us that he and Skye were meant to be together, no matter what.

Now, regarding Grant in this version... I don't really know why I decided to involve the Wards but, back when I was writing the main timeline I considered several different ways to handle AoS. By then I'd already decided I was fully devoted to Skyeward and that Phil was going to be good. I considered having Hakon meet Grant either in juvie or in the forest, the two would come to see each other as brothers and Grant would become a double agent for Hakon... but then I changed my find, first because it would have made the story longer than I was planning, I would need to establish Hakon, and then Grant, and narrate a number of years three times instead of two. But more than that, I wanted Grant to choose Skye. Much as I love Hakon, I wanted it to be about Grant and Skye, much like it was in the show. So I cut out that idea and ended writing what I did. Still, that idea came back to mind while I was writing this and I decided to give it a chance, except with Tony instead. I hope you'll like it.

The song in this chapter is "I Was Here" as sung by Beyoncé

* * *

**Rising **

Some people come to the World just to Live in it, others, to Change it.

Asgard was commonly known as the Realm Eternal. A place where time had little meaning, inhabited by beings so long lived most believed them to be simply immortal. As such, there was rarely any true change to the place, to its people. At least until a single event caused a cascade effect that changed everything…

It began with a strange disquiet in the younger prince: Loki. No one could explain it, not even himself, he just seemed anxious for some unknown reason. He was like that for a while until one day he just… he screamed, calling for someone before dropping unconscious. Everyone was extremely worried, especially when a full night and day passed and Loki still hadn't woken. And then she arrived…

Everyone stepped out of her way as she passed by, afraid even if they would never admit it. Lady Frigg was at her son's bedside, where she'd been since he'd first been taken there by her eldest son. Thor, who'd been with the healers, waiting for some possible solution for what was going on (though the Lady Eir insisted it was next to impossible to find a solution when they didn't even know what the problem was exactly), rushed there when the whispers of an unknown woman in a black cloak, with the hood up, walking the palace's halls, reached him.

"Lady Hel…" Thor muttered as he hurried to stand before her, doing his best to block her path to Loki. "You will not take my brother."

"Will you fight me for him, Thor, Prince of Asgard?" She asked, sounding almost like she was taunting him, her voice echoing oddly due to the heavy hood.

"If I have to." Thor answered without hesitation, his hold on Mjolnir tightening.

"Thor!" Lady Frigg called, scandalized.

"I will not let her take Loki!" Thor snapped. "The Queen of the Dead will not be taking my brother this day."

"No, I won't." Hel said easily enough.

That threw everyone for a loop. Hel took advantage of their shock to walk past Thor and reach Loki. She sat on the bed, on the side opposite from Lady Frigg and extended a porcelain white hand from beneath the cloak, running it down one side of his sleeping face before whispering a spell very quietly.

Thor spun around as he realized what had happened in his moment of distraction, right in time to see a pair of jade green eyes snap open abruptly, practically at the same time as Loki sat up violently, hand extended, reaching for something (or someone) that wasn't there. He snapped out of it a moment later and his eyes went straight to the cloaked woman, only when he spoke to her, he didn't use the name any of the others expected.

"Helena…" He exhaled, eyes softening from their almost wild look from earlier. "Is she… are you… I…?"

She pushed the hood of her cloak back without a thought. Allowing her raven black hair in a thick braid and a bit of a twist to fall down her back, pale green eyes shining with the light of the stars. Though the detail most of the Aesir noticed most, were the dozens, possibly hundreds of small, thin silvery scars that decorated one of her hands, one side of her neck, even part of her face. Thor could almost feel like he knew why those scars were there, or at least he should he just couldn't recall…

"She's alright, I'm alright, and you have nothing to apologize for." Helena assured him with a gentle smile.

"Are you sure?" Loki couldn't help but ask.

"I was just there." Helena nodded her voice going soft, pained, as she added. "She was close, so very close… but they got to her in time."

"I want to go." Loki stated, moving to get off the bed. "I have to see her."

"You can't." Helena stopped him.

"Why not…?" Loki demanded. "She's my match! Your…"

"I know exactly who and what she is!" Helena retorted, pushing him back onto the bed with unexpected strength. "What you need to understand is she won't know you. Not now. And if you try to force your way into her life it will not end well."

"If anyone tries to stop me…"

"She's a baby!"

That pulled him up short.

"Well, more an infant really." Helena revised. "But the point remains. She won't know you, not yet. She's too young to understand… and if you try to force it, her father will not take it well. He's had a hard enough time securing custody of her after the death of her mother."

"Tell me everything." Loki demanded.

So Helena told him. Everything she knew about Beatrix 'Trixie' Mariah Wilson-Stark. Which wasn't much just yet, but still, Loki took every word in, like a man dying of thirst, having his first drink after almost too long…

"Will you keep an eye on her until… until she's older, until she's old enough for me to go to her?" Loki asked very softly. "It's just… after everything you have said, and with the way the bond is pulling at me even now… I don't trust myself, Helena. If I go, if I just allow myself to lay eyes on her I won't want to let her go. It's been so long… I don't want her father to hate me, think me a deviant of some kind. And it would not be fair to him, he deserves to have his time with his daughter, without another trying to interfere."

"I shall indeed." Helena agreed immediately. "You know she's as dear to me as she is to you, even if not in exactly the same way."

"I know darling." Loki nodded.

There was a smile in his face as he said it, soft but so bright, enough her eyes were shining. It was like nothing Thor had seen in so long, probably not ever. It hurt, seeing his little brother like that and realizing Loki had never smiled like that before. He wasn't even sure what was worse, the pain of realizing Loki had never smiled like that before, or not knowing what made him smile like that in that moment.

"Someone what to explain what in the abyss is going on?!" The blonde finally demanded.

Loki turned to look at his brother for one moment, blinked, and then turned questioning eyes towards his daughter.

"He doesn't remember." Helena reminded him. "No one does, other than us."

"Why?" Loki demanded. "Why did I ever forget her?"

"It was done out of love." Helena told him kindly. "A desperate and misguided attempt to keep you from self-destructing after Nana was lost to us. The Allfather refused to lose you too. He thought if you forgot her you would forget the pain as well." She closed her eyes briefly and shook her head. "It was a mistake, but he did it because he loved you and didn't want to lose you too. Not after Nana and Meril…"

Loki let out a breath slowly, running a hand through his slightly greasy hair. To think that over the past years (decades, centuries) he'd been so sure that his Father didn't love him, never had… and to realize that it was a huge misunderstanding… that and a spell that had apparently made a huge mess of a lot of things.

"I was the focus wasn't I?" Loki made a decent guess.

Helena just nodded, having an idea of what her father was planning.

Loki smiled then. A wild, mischievous smile. He was about to pull the biggest prank in history, and no one would even be complaining about it afterward! He bit the tip of one of his fingers on each hand, enough to draw blood, if just one or two drops, then used those fingers to draw a line down the middle of the opposite arm, on both forearms. Runes appeared briefly on his skin, as if pulled from it by the blood itself, before both runes and blood flashed brightly, the same green-gold of his magic, and then vanished altogether. The moment they were fully gone an aura formed around him, so bright even Thor, with no magic other than what Mjolnir gave him, could see it. It grew fast, bigger and brighter every second; and then wilder as well, until it almost seemed like Loki was sitting in the middle of a hurricane of magic. Papers and trinkets were blown every which way, same as the drapes on the balcony-doors and windows, even the furniture seemed to shake.

"Loki…?" Thor called loudly, trying to make himself heard over the roar of what looked like a forming magical-storm. "What are you doing?"

For all answer Loki raised his head up, as if looking at the stars through the ceiling of his room and then he screamed, a wordless cry that didn't sound fully human. It was as if there had just been an explosion, as if Loki's magic exploded. And it wasn't just limited to him, or to his quarters. It grew and expanded until it reached every corner of Asgard. All around the Realm Eternal people stopped whatever they were doing, as blocks they hadn't even known were there dissolved from their minds and their memories rearranged themselves. To many of them the change was so minimal as to be inconsequential, but to some…

Lady Frigg was the first to react, her eyes going straight to Loki's daughter as tears gathered in the corner of her eyes, remembering suddenly how long it had been since she'd last laid eyes on her granddaughter…

"Oh Helena…" She murmured, not quite able to keep from crying.

"It's alright grandma, everything will be better now." Helena reassured her.

"Yes it will my dear." Frigg wholeheartedly believed that.

And Thor… he just stared at his brother, the weight of too many years and so much pain, both given and taken.

"Oh brother… how we've wronged you." He muttered, not quite sure if he was saying it for Loki's or his own benefit.

Loki said nothing to that. He couldn't tell Thor it was all forgotten, because it would have been a lie. Couldn't tell him everything would be alright, because he'd no way of knowing that for sure. What he did know was that things could be better, and he'd certainly do his best to ensure it'd be so; and he believed, so would his brother. The past wouldn't be forgotten, not ever again, but that was alright. After all, forgetting had been the start of all their problems; everything else they could work through.

**xXx**

That was the beginning but not the end of the changes wrought in Asgard. The change was most obvious in the first few days, as the Aesir would bow at Loki, treat him with the level of respect his position deserved, and which most hadn't given him in a very long time. Some even went as far as apologizing for the things they'd done while not remembering things. Loki was so happy, so hopeful about his match being reincarnated and that one day soon they'd meet that he didn't even care about any of that.

As the years passed a sense of almost eagerness filled the Realm Eternal. It wasn't just Loki who was waiting anymore. Everyone remembered Princess Tinúviel (born Lalaith Mirloth), the crown princess of Alfheim, who'd been so close to becoming Queen… until she met Prince Loki of Asgard. The moment their eyes met they were lost, in each other, for they were an involuntary match, meant to be together, their souls bound lifetimes prior (even if none could remember). Ljósálfar believed that a match was a gift from the stars, given to them by the Mother (the one who had put the stars in the sky, and the light of them in the eyes of every elf). Theirs was a love so strong it couldn't be ignored, not for anything, and so Loki and Tinúviel gave in and loved each other. It wasn't easy, and it wasn't perfect but it was all worth it.

In the years following their marriage Tinúviel had come to be known across the Realms, as the lady with the most beautiful voice. Their daughter was Helena, the light of their lives, whom many believed would one day become Goddess of Beauty. And then Amora had come into their lives, trying to enchant Thor into marrying her, going as far as using Amortentia (a love potion that would bend the drinker's will), except Tinúviel caught her, stopped her. In return Amora sought to destroy Tinúviel, and eventually managed it. Killing the elven princess and her unborn child. A loss that had shattered Loki, made him self-destructive, to the point where the Allfather saw no other way to save him but to make him forget his love and his loss, hoping it would solve the problem. It didn't, not completely, though it at least allowed Loki to survive long enough for Tinúviel to find her way back to him… or at least she soon would…

Everyone, not just in Asgard but in all the Realms, had loved Tinúviel dearly, and the prospect of her return… Loki had even managed to convince Odin to release Fenrir from his prison. It was done with the proviso that he'd remain in the company of someone trusted at all times, which was made all the easier when Lady Ylva, second in command of the Valkyries publicly announced he was her match and consort (which caused a veritable mayhem with most of the Elders and nobles, something Loki found incredibly entertaining).

"You enjoy chaos, do you not brother?" Thor asked with a small smile. "Whether you are the cause of it or not."

"I'll have you know, Thor, that most of the times the chaos is not of my own making, I just have to be in exactly the right place, at just the right time to be able to enjoy it to my heart's content." Loki announced in an almost pompous tone.

Thor let out a loud guffaw, that definitely sounded like his brother.

Things only got more insane as time passed. Suddenly all Asgard was very interested in Midgard, wanting to know about the Realm their beloved princess would come from. What was more interesting, suddenly time mattered, in a way it never had before. As they all waited until the reincarnation of the elven princess became old enough for their prince to go to her.

Nobody was expecting it when, about fifteen mortal years later, in the middle of the morning, their prince abruptly screamed, before collapsing in the middle of his private garden. It was the same he'd once fixed with all of Tinúviel's favorite flowers, especially roses, a mix of those from Alfheim and from Midgard (roses didn't naturally grow in Asgard). The place had been razed to the ground once, following Tinúviel's funeral, and only recently had Loki begun working on it again, sometimes with the help of his mother, sometimes with that of his closest friends, like Sif, Sigyn and Ylva. Only certain individuals were allowed into that garden, those Loki trusted most, as it was meant to be a sanctuary for him and his love…

They made quite a striking picture, when that group left the private garden in the direction of the healers' wing: Sigyn running ahead, the skirts of her handmaiden dress in her hands to avoid tripping on the hem, Ylva behind her, making sure no one got to close, and on her heels her mate, Fenrir, with an unconscious Loki in his arms, his body covered in Ylva's red cloak as it had reverted to his Jotunn form and would have given him, and anyone else who touched him, serious frostbite otherwise.

"Brother!" Thor cried out, rushing into the healers' quarters from a different direction. "What's happened to him?!"

"We know not my prince." Lady Eir, the Goddess of Healing, admitted grimly. "He's entered some kind of trance, though he know not what has caused it, or when he might wake up."

"Helena is in Midgard." Ylva informed him grimly.

"You think this has something to do with Loki's match…" Thor realized.

"I do, yes." Ylva nodded.

There was nothing else to be said, they all could only hope things wouldn't be as bad as some might be fearing. The last thing they needed was to lose the lady before they ever got a chance to know her… Thor had a feeling his brother wouldn't survive such a loss twice.

It took about half a fortnight for Helena to drop by, and by then the tensions were running so high Thor was about ready to drop on Midgard and go looking for his would-be wedded-sister (even though he hadn't the slightest idea about where to go or how to find her). Loki had woken a couple of days earlier but was still incredibly weak.

Unlike the first time the Aesir had seen her (since the passing of her mother) she was no longer dressed all in black, or hiding herself. Instead she wore a blue floor-length gown, her hair falling down her back, sometimes in a thick braid, sometimes loose. Her scars were no longer something to be ashamed of (not that she'd ever been ashamed, but others no longer looked down on her for them), instead being a badge of honor, a demonstration of all she had been willing to do out of love for her Nana, and all she had survived.

"She's alive." Was the first thing Helena said the moment she was fully in the room.

"She almost wasn't." Loki whispered quietly.

"Indeed." Helena nodded. "A group of assassins was sent after the Starks. Trixie, the name Nana goes by in this life, sensed their intent a moment before the attack began and she moved to protect her family. It worked for the most part, she was the only one hurt in the end. Though, if her foster sister hadn't manifested for the first time exactly when she did, and with the power she did… it's likely things would have been worse. She effectively brought an end to the attack all on her own, and she's just eight years old!"

"That's a remarkable show of power for one so young." Thor murmured with a nod. "But is Princess Tinúviel alright?"

"Trixie, her name is Trixie now." Helena reminded him. "Trixie Stark."

"Trixie…" Sif repeated thoughtfully. "An odd name isn't it?"

"Her full name is Beatrix Mariah Wilson-Stark." Helena announced. "Her father gave her the nickname of Trixie when she was still an infant and she still goes by it. The mortals also call her Angel of Death. It started as a taunt, with people seeking to unsettle her; they chose that name, just like they once gave her father the title of Merchant of Death because he creates and sells weapons for a living. Even if that's not all he creates anymore. Instead of letting that name take her down, with her father's guidance she chose to embrace it, claiming it as her identity; making herself into an envoy of justice."

"That sounds just like her." Loki said with a smile.

"Indeed." Helena agreed.

"How bad is it?" Loki wanted to know.

He knew his daughter was trying to make conversation to keep from getting to the point, but he just needed to know. His match was alive, and that was great, but he knew she wasn't great. Even with their bond not fully active (since they had yet to take the vows in their current life), he had still been affected by her nearly dying; he was also sure that their latent bond was drawing on his energy to help her, explaining why he was so weakened. It wasn't perfect, not as effective as it'd be if their bond was fully active, but if it was helping any Loki would not complain. In fact, he'd rather find a way to help her more. But for that he first needed to know what the situation was exactly in that moment.

"Bad." Helena finally admitted, grim. "Several bullets hit her in the back and even in one hip, damaging muscles and shattering bones. The doctors, their very best healers, managed to take all the fragments out and minimize the damage. The good news? She can still feel all her body. The bad? She lost enough bones that cannot be replaced that she cannot so much as sit up, much less stand or walk."

"What is the lady's father doing about it?" Fenrir inquired.

"Tony Stark is more than just a weapon's smith, he is a genius of the highest caliber, one of the most incredible minds in Midgard." Helena explained. "He's created technology that is leaps and bounds ahead of anything anyone else in that Realm could conceive, and not only that, but he's managed to make most of it accessible to every else in the planet. He promised Nana that if she could not learn to walk again, he'd get her to fly."

"Fly?" Thor echoed. "How is that even possible? Is the man gifted?"

"No." Helena smiled at that. "Incredible as it might seem, especially considering that all of his children, both by blood and by adoption, are. He's a baseline human. Still, one of incredible talent. As for what he's doing exactly… he's making Nana wings."

The Aesir still didn't understand and truth was Helena had trouble explaining it right. Tony wasn't finished just yet, but she'd seen the project, and had no doubt that whatever Tony Stark got into his head to do, he'd find a way to do it, no matter how impossible it might seem. The only piece he might be missing in his puzzle Helena had made sure would find its way to him. After all, the Hawk would not have forgotten his old friend Rossi…

**xXx**

It took forever for the Aesir to decide how they were going to handle things. While usually Odin Allfather would remind everyone they weren't supposed to interfere in matters of mortals, the involuntary bond between Loki and Trixie took precedence. Also, Helena had a surprising revelation that helped things:

"She remembers." She informed them. "I… I talked to her, when I was on Midgard, while she was at the hospital. Apparently she's been dreaming about her life as Tinúviel for as long as she can remember. At first they were just dreams to her, fascinating, vivid dreams. But as she grew up and they became more detailed, she began realizing there was more to them. After her last brush with death it apparently clicked for her. She knows, she… she remembers me… us…"

Loki held her tightly against him, understanding why she was so affected. While Helena might look very much like him and have inherited his magic, she was very much her mother's daughter. Her kindness, her strong will, her willingness to always see the best in the world and in people, her desire to help everyone in any way she could… that was all Tinúviel. Being unable to save her from Amora's attacks had marked Helena more than just physically, a deep, terrible trauma that hadn't healed for centuries. Not until she had her mother again…

That was enough for all of them, even Odin.

Then things got tricky. Of course they all wanted to do something to help Trixie, but it wasn't quite that easy. The healers could no doubt do a lot to help Trixie, but technically mortals weren't supposed to be allowed in Asgard, and Trixie was very much mortal, regardless of any memories she might have regained…

"Give her apples." Fenrir stated as if it should have been obvious.

"Indeed." Ylva agreed, catching up to what her match and mate meant immediately. "The apples would deal with the issue of her mortality, and they'd also help with her healing."

No one even considered refusing that. So by the next day Loki and Helena were on their way to Midgard (through the shadow-paths as they were much easier, and far more discreet than the Bifrost), carrying several of Idunn's golden apples.

**xXx**

Things had changed once again when Loki and Helena made it to Midgard, more than any of them could have expected, considering that it had barely been a fortnight since Helena had left Trixie's side, back when she was still in the hospital (though already making plans to get out of there as soon as possible, she just hated hospitals).

The first surprised came when, following their bonds to Trixie, they ended at the Malibu mansion instead of the hospital in LA. A surprise that only grew the moment obnoxious alarms began sounding as soon as they stepped out of the shadows and onto the porch.

"FRIDAY it's me, Helena Miriel!" The half-elf called loudly.

Brief as her previous visit might have been, Trixie had told her about her father's AIs, and while JARVIS was the one in charge of the Malibu mansion, if her Nana was there, that meant FRIDAY had to be as well. It worked, the alarms and the red lights cut off, and the front door opened.

"Who the hell is the cause of all that racket?!" Tony demanded as he practically skidded into the lobby. "Do you want to give us all a heart attack?!"

"Well, I thought you'd rather I use the front door this time rather than appearing straight into a bedroom." Helena said in a near drawl that surprised Loki. "Wasn't that what you said I should do next time I decided to drop by?"

"Ah! My almost granddaughter!" Tony cried out dramatically. "And please, lets leave it at almost, I'm too young to be a grandfather for real! And Pepper would certainly smack me if I even mention it. She's been wonderful with the twins but I really wouldn't want to scare her off before I can put the last ring on her finger."

Helena shook her head, smiling. While she'd never met Pepper Potts in person, she'd been keeping an eye on her Nana's reincarnation since finding out about her and knew a lot of things about her and everyone she considered family.

"And who's this?" Tony asked, noticing Loki just then.

"I am Loki, son of Odin Allfather and the Lady Frigg, brother of Thor, second Prince of Asgard, God of Mischief, Lies and Magic." He introduced himself dramatically with an elaborate bow. "Princess Tinúviel of Alfheim and Asgard was once my match and my consort, the mother of my daughter, Helena Miriel, the light of our lives and…"

"And she's reincarnated in my Trixie, my angel." Tony finished for him. "I'm aware of that part. Both Trixie and the little lady told me about the whole thing… and I knew it was coming. Ever since someone took a peak into Trixie's mind while she talked about her dreams and deduced they more than mere dreams." He shook his head, mostly to himself. "I've known for years this moment was coming. Cannot say I was always happy about it but… I am happy to know that Trixie will have someone there for her, always. With everything that's happened lately… it does help me to know that if the worst happens she'll have you, both of you."

"What happened?" Loki immediately picked up on Tony's tension.

"And why are you here?" Helena asked then. "I thought the doctors wanted to keep Nana for at least another couple of weeks."

"They did, yes, until the Winter Soldier got in and tried to finish what the Ten Rings began!" Tony snapped, fury running beneath his skin at the mere thought.

They'd only just found out that all the assassins/mercenaries Stane had paid to kill the Starks were part of the same Middle-Eastern terrorist group, the Ten Rings (Tony had taken great pleasure in blowing up all of the Stark weaponry illegally in the Middle-East, or at least ordering JARVIS to do so, after hearing that particular piece of information); when suddenly there had been a second assassination attempt, right there in the hospital. The assassin turned out to be none other than the Winter Soldier. A ghost character, believed to be but a myth by everyone in the intelligence community. Though the shock hadn't actually ended there, it had only gotten worse when Tony pulled the goggles and mask off him and realized that he recognized the man he was looking at, none other than Sgt. James 'Bucky' Barnes, one of the Howling Commandos and Captain America's best friend, who'd supposedly died during a mission in the Alps back in 1945! It was enough to drive anyone crazy, and the reason Tony had decided to tell no one about the Winter Soldier, instead getting the man, while still unconscious, to a secure location. As far as the public was concerned, the assassin had been thwarted and then escaped.

"There's something I'd like your help with." The mortal man blurted out.

Tony had spoken before fully realizing it, though once the words came out he knew it was the perfect plan. If anyone would be able to do anything, it'd be sorcerers like those two. Truth was he hadn't the slightest idea how to wake up the assassin and be sure he wouldn't be attacked immediately. Did the man even remember who he'd once been or had his memories and core personality be completely overwritten? Could something like that even be done?! He hadn't the slightest idea, but then again, he didn't understand how someone who'd supposedly been dead for sixty years could be alive and seeking to kill them all so…

After hearing about the Winter Soldier Loki was all for heading straight there, killing the bastard and being done with it, until he saw his daughter's face.

"He's one of mine, in a sense." She admitted very quietly. "Many years ago, during the war, I found him, lying on a slab, in an awful lab, he was hanging onto life by a thread, and with such tenacity… I couldn't help but admire that."

"You cannot just change life or death for someone, that's not in your power." Loki stated rather than asked.

"That's true." Helena nodded. "I gave him a choice. He could let go and I'd guide him to peace, finally; or he could stay, and go back to the man he saw as his brother, and one day he'd be able to find his match… or rather, she'd find him." She exhaled. "I'm sure we both know already what choice he made. All I did was give him a very tiny boost, just enough for him to endure one more day, when he was found. Things is, if I hadn't done that, Captain America, the Howling Commandos, they wouldn't have been what they were. He was the clincher there, in ways most of us will never understand."

"Because Cap was superhuman, was almost a god, while he was human." Tony ventured. "He was human and yet still Rogers's friend, practically his brother. Also, he had military training, which Rogers lacked. Barnes was what connected Cap with those who would become the Howling Commandos."

"Exactly." Helena nodded. "Though to be honest, even I didn't know that when I asked the question. I could see his latent bonds, and that he was standing on the edge of a knife, the edge between life and death… so I gave him the option."

"Who's his match?" Loki asked, curious. "Do you know?"

"Not really." Helena admitted. "All I know is that she's not human, and it's an involuntary one."

Meaning they'd been together before. If Barnes's match was from another Realm…

"We will see what we can do for the Sergeant." Loki stated, turning to Tony. "But first, with your blessing, I'd like to see my match."

For a moment it seemed like Tony was fighting a battle with himself. Truth was that while he hadn't lied when telling Loki and Helena that he was happy Trixie would always have someone. That didn't mean it was easy for him, the idea of his angel no longer being just his… he knew of course that all daughters (or almost all daughters) would one day stop being just their father's daughters to become someone's husband. It wasn't him being paternalistic at all, if Trixie had preferred girls that would have been just fine with him, same if she'd rather not be with anyone. It was… for seventeen years he'd been the most important man in his daughter's life; which was only compounded by the fact that for fifteen of those he'd been the only blood family his angel had had… and with Loki there…

"She is my match, that is something very important to me." Loki murmured very quietly, looking straight at Loki. "But she will always be your daughter." He made a pause before adding. "You know, Tinúviel didn't have a father… Well, I suppose, strictly speaking, she did, but he passed away before she had any memories of him. My father is the closest paternal figure she's ever had… until you."

Tony took a deep breath, then nodded and stepped to the side, letting Loki pass.

In her room, Trixie was on her bed, propped up on some pillows. Her hazel eyes went straight to Loki's jade green ones the moment he stepped inside.

"A'maelamin (Beloved)…" He breathed out the moment he laid eyes on her.

She looked nothing like Tinúviel, aside from the eyes. Trixie had brunette hair, lightened by the sun, in some areas so much it looked a golden shade, almost like highlights, except they were completely natural (Tinúviel's had been a dark auburn, bordering on brown, except for how it shone red under the light); her skin was tanned almost golden (nothing like Tinúviel's light peach complexion); the height was almost the same, Trixie being perhaps an inch or so shorter, her build athletic rather than slim… though in that moment she looked almost dwarfed by the huge bed and pillows.

"Fintalëharyon (Trick-prince)…" Trixie named him in the same tone.

The words, the very same they'd used once to refer to one another, their chosen terms of endearment, it was the only confirmation they needed of who they each were and how much the other remembered. Loki began speaking the moment he stepped fully into the room, with Trixie catching up in a heartbeat, allowing the two to recite the words pretty much in unison:

"From this day on, you will be my only one. I shall look at no other the way I look at you, I shall think of no other the way I think about you, I shall talk to no other the way I talk to you, I shall desire no other the way I desire you, and I shall lay with no other the way I lay with you. I shall be with no other for you are now and forever shall be my one and only; my friend, my lover, my partner, my match…"

There was a flash of light, which took shape into a multi-colored ribbon of light, the shades so closely blended it looked almost silvery-white; it didn't even need to wound itself around them, as it had already been there, their latent bond there from a lifetime prior, possibly more. The Ancient Vows solidifying it in a way nothing else could have.

Loki reached her side right as the light-show ended, bending just enough to place a short but very sweet kiss on her lips.

"My Nightingale…" He whispered in a very heartfelt tone, the closest he could come to her old name (he wouldn't call her Tinúviel directly, wouldn't want to make her feel like she had to be anyone but who she was).

"My Maverick." Trixie picked the word she thought could best describe him.

Loki gestured with his right hand once, a golden apple seemingly dropping out of thin air and onto it. He offered it to his beloved. She took it with a small smile, biting straight into it.

"You know…" He began, not sure she fully understood the implications of the gift, or of her accepting it.

As much as he might want her to take it, he wouldn't allow her to feel cheated.

"I know." She nodded, before taking another bite. "And I will take as many of Idunn's apples as you may wish and be allowed to bring me… but I will not be going to Asgard."

That threw Loki for a loop.

"I know what you'd wish, and how noble your intentions are, you only want the best for me." Trixie explained. "But if I accepted, I would have to leave, forever. I would have to give up the life I have now, the family I love, and that's not something I'm willing to do." She shook her head. "It's become public now, my situation. That the assassination attempt left me paralyzed. If I were to go with you to Asgard, to allow your healers to treat me… I'd never be able to come back. Not without causing mayhem. While I do wish for Midgard to be recognized among the Nine Realms, and for humans to know we're not alone in the universe… if they were to know the kind of healing Asgard is capable of… it wouldn't be good. They'd want it all, and they wouldn't understand when the answer was no. They'd see me being healed and others not, as me having an advantage, that it happened because I'm rich, or a Stark, or whatever other reason they might concoct, and not because I've earned it… and lets be honest, there's no way I could possibly earn something like that. If I weren't your match no one in Asgard, not even you, would even think about allowing it."

Loki had no words with which to reply to that.

"The apples will help." Trixie went on. "The day will come when the world will learn I'm gifted. And once the apples have done enough to allow me to stand and walk again, we can let them believe it was my status as gifted, as mutant, that let me recover from something like that, that let me survive at all… it will be easier than revealing Asgard's involvement."

"You've made up your mind already, haven't you?" Loki murmured, though it wasn't really a question, even if he'd never met Trixie before, he knew his match enough, and some things just did not change.

"Any other course of action would require me to leave my family, my dad, auntie Pepper, uncle Rhodey, uncle Happy, my new brother and sister… I refuse to even think about that." She let out a sigh, taking her beloved's hands in hers. "What I need you to understand my love is… I have a family now. Back when I was Tinúviel… Erynion was like a brother to me, but most of the time he chose to hold onto the distance required by our respective stations, and as much as I might love you, and as welcoming as your family might have been, they were never fully mine. I lost Merilwen and Naneth (Mother) when I was far too young still. But now… now I have a family, and they love me. I cannot give that up."

"Nor should you." Loki understood completely how important family was, there was no way he'd try to take that from his match. "I will respect your choice."

Thor and his parents weren't going to like it, they certainly wouldn't understand it, but Loki would make sure they wouldn't try to pressure Trixie. Not that he thought they had any chance at changing her mind, but he'd rather they not upset her.

Loki moved, as if to leave, and Trixie reflexively tightened her hold on him. That made him turn to look at her again.

"Stay with me?" She asked, so very softly.

Loki didn't know what made her suddenly so hesitant. If it was how new their relationship was, at least in their current life, the very recent and sudden changes in her life (not just him, but after the two attempts on her life and those of her family…), but he wouldn't allow her to think he would ever choose to be anywhere but by her side.

"Forever." He said wholeheartedly, kissing her again.

That was all Trixie needed to hear, as she poured her whole heart and soul into their kiss.

**xXx**

A lot happened in the Stark household in the following years. Beginning with their move to New York. They never talked about it, but Trixie knew she was the reason. On the one hand, hoping that the change would keep some of the more obsessed paparazzi off their back; on the other, hers and Loki's relationship would have been hard to explain back in California. Publicly Mr. Luke Serrure was a highly trained bodyguard Tony had hired to accompany his daughter and keep her safe at all times. Only for the two of them to fall in love. The press loved their story. The Stark heiress, surviving two assassination attempts, battered but not broken, falling in love with the valiant man hand-picked by her father to protect her… it sounded almost like a fairy-tale.

By the time Trixie was nineteen she was married and pregnant, a baby-girl she gave birth to close to seven weeks after her birthday, on the Spring Equinox. A beautiful baby with her mother's golden skin, her father's black hair and the most dazzling red-orange-black eyes ever. They gave her the name of Rose Alfdis Patrice Stark-Serrure.

Being adoptive mother to the twins apparently helped Pepper make up her mind, for by the time Rose was born she and Tony had a several month old baby girl of their own: Aylen Victoria Potts-Stark. A beautiful girl with red hair, amber eyes and the cutest dimples in her cheeks. Tony loved her as dearly as he did Trixie, or the twins, and all three older siblings were delighted to both watch over and spoil the little girl rotten.

The twins… while moving to a new country and gaining a new family had been a huge change, made none-the-easier by the assassination attempt (though they thankfully hadn't been there for the second one) and them manifesting as mutants for the very first time. But Tony cared for them, and with the help of Professor X and a few others in the Institute the twins managed to get control over their abilities very quickly. It also helped perhaps that no one in their family, whether gifted or not, was at all afraid of them. Even the first year or so, when Wanda would have accidents with her power getting away from her when she got overly emotional, or Pietro breaking something when he failed to stop in time; they were never anything other than supportive.

Things were a bit tricky with James Barnes. It had required a lot of work from Loki, Charles and Jean Grey (once she'd managed to get the two sides of her personality into balance, the phoenix had turned out to be an off-the-charts Omega-level mutant; the only one(s) with so much as a chance at defeating her (mutants) being Charles and Erik, syncing up as Onslaught, though that was something they'd only done once, years prior and weren't even sure they'd be able to do so again). Things got all the more interesting when Sif turned out to be his match.

After Loki and Helena had established their new identities in Midgard, as the Serrure siblings, and with Helena taking the job as go-between for Tony and Pepper after he gave her the COO position, effectively making her as good as his partner in business (as she already was such romantically). Thor, Sif, Ylva and Fenrir had taken to visiting as often as possible, until Tony and Loki arranged identities for all of them, with Fenrir as his adopted little brother, Ylva being his wife, Sif her cousin and Thor as Loki's cousin. It was in one of those visits that Sif felt the bond pulling at her, as a need to help James, anyway she could, practically took her over. While it was certainly scary to those who'd never understood the reality of an involuntary bond, Sif was also able to give James an anchor, and the stability he was so lacking.

Other people joined their family through the years. Like Dr. Jane Foster, and her intern: Darcy Lewis. While most of the science community would laugh at her theories of travel between worlds, Tony and Loki recognized how much of the truth she knew and understood, and so Tony recruited her. That it ended with Thor finding his match in the doctor was just a side benefit, as far as they were concerned.

Then there were Betty and Bruce Banner. Knowing what he/they did about SHIELD (while Grant didn't call often, he'd done it a few times, enough for them to know that John Garrett wasn't the only HYDRA mole in SHIELD), the Starks (by blood and choice) had made a point to keep an eye and ear out regarding any and all gifted. SHIELD itself was bad enough when it came to those other than human, the last thing they wanted was for them to be at the mercy of HYDRA as well. It was how they found out about what happened at Culver, and then in Harlem. Tony intervened just in time to get Betty before her father could put her in 'protective custody', which turned out to be a good thing when she found out she was pregnant, and the boy was most definitely not going to be fully human. She was also the one to eventually convince Bruce to join them, to trust the Starks, though no one ever asked how she managed that.

Monitoring gifted, and keeping an eye out for those SHIELD might show 'special interest' in also lead them all to seeking out Spider-Man when he made his debut in Queens. For the longest time it wasn't much with him, only a warning to keep an eye out, be careful who discovered his true identity. Eventually they'd gotten to know him, and the 'new kid in the neighborhood', the Green Goblin (years later Tony still cursed the fact that Peter and Gwen both ended working for OsCorp and not him; the best two genius of the generation and they weren't in SI!).

Things progressed with the Starks too, with the creation of Stark Medical, and then when Tony finally discovered the missing piece to making Arc-reactor technology viable. Which also in a roundabout way lead to him creating a synthetic vibranium (it wasn't quite as good as the real thing, but good enough for their needs).

There were a few complications. Like when they discovered that the Winter Soldier was behind the murder of Howard and Maria Stark. They were all quite sure that if they hadn't found the videos about the Soldier's 'sessions', and if they hadn't all heard the man screaming after one of his nightmares at least once, no one would have been able to stop Tony from taking vengeance for what had been done to his family. Even if he'd always known it had to have been murder (even if the police could never prove it), he could have never imagined having the assassin so close… and then learning he was as much a victim as the rest of them.

It was all about HYDRA, it always came down to HYDRA.

"They're going down." Tony decided abruptly. "I don't know when, I don't know how. But every single one of those monsters are going down. For Mom and Dad, for James, for Grant, and Aunt Marge and Captain America and all the others who've been hurt directly or indirectly by those bastards. HYDRA has no idea what they did, making Tony Stark into their enemy…"

"All the Starks." Trixie corrected him serenely. "We're a family, and if we're doing this, we're doing it together."

"Yes, we will." Loki agreed.

He might not like the idea of his beloved going to war against an enemy none of them knew the full scope of; but at the same time he understood the want, the need, for justice. All the same, there was no way he was letting her do it alone. He'd be there, and he was sure, the rest of their family (by blood, by word, by deed) would as well.

It took a few years, but once everyone was sure that the Winter Soldier programming was gone, for good (Tony had gone as far as totally destroying the metal arm HYDRA had fitted James with, fitting him with a new and much better one). When that day finally came James decided that he couldn't stay there anymore, he wanted the chance to travel the world, to actually see it; and to heal in his own way. Sif of course went with him and, surprisingly enough, so did Ylva and Fenrir. Fenrir too wanted the chance to travel and explore after spending so many years confined to a clearing in the deepest, darkest part of the Asgardian forest. James liked it, not being alone, partly because of his self-doubt regarding the Soldier really being gone, and in part because they were people who knew him, accepted him, and could help him get out of his head when things got bad.

It took even longer for them all to be ready. None of them could know when the time would come. When HYDRA might make his move, all they knew was that they needed to do all they could to prepare, to be ready to act when they made their move. So they trained, and built and prepared in every way they knew how (and lived their lives, Pepper refused to allow HYDRA to consume them to the point that they'd stop truly living, and the babies were a good reminder of their priorities)… and then Rose woke up in the middle of the night, calling out.

It wasn't that she was being loud, she hadn't even screamed, not really, but Trixie, Loki, Wanda and Pietro could all feel the wave of power, and upon rushing to Rose's room they found all the candles (the girl loved her candles, had dozens, placed in every surface in her bedroom) lit, the flames dancing high, in time with the girl's panting breaths.

"Rosie?" Her mama called.

She was in Loki's arms, as that was much faster than getting into her wheelchair (while the golden apples had certainly done a lot for her, she still couldn't really walk, much less run).

"Mama…?" Nine-year-old Rose blinked as she looked at her parents.

A fraction of a second later Pietro was in the room, kneeling by her bedside.

If something had truly shocked them all, almost enough to shake the foundations of their family, it was discovering that Pietro and Rose were an involuntary match.

And really, the thing with Vision had been complicated enough. No one fully understood how an AI JARVIS and Tony had been working together on, mixed with Dr. Cho's experimental cradle (Tony had been sponsoring the woman as part of the new Stark Medical, a part of him hoping she might eventually be able to help Trixie), Thor's lightning (the man still wasn't as careful as he should be when excited) and Helena's magic had combined to form the souled-android that had chosen the name of Vision, and who happened to be Wanda's match.

Pietro and Rose… the family had known about that match since the girl was five. On the night she'd first manifested, as both a Seer and a Fire Elemental, Rose's very first vision had been about Pietro, their bond. Then again, Trixie herself had dreamed the two of them together; Rose in an off-white dress, red roses in her hair, Pietro in blue pants, a sweatshirt and white sneakers; the two twirling together, laughing, rings of fire around them. Neither her nor Loki were sure if they'd really failed to see the truth in that moment, or if they just hadn't been ready to deal with the fact that their little girl (the same they'd once lost and been blessed to have a second chance with) was meant for someone before even being born!

In the end they'd dealt with it. It helped that Pietro was no pervert. While he was aware that he and Rose were meant to be together, that their souls had been bound for lifetimes; he also knew it wasn't time yet. Rose was a child, and she deserved the chance to be that; and he did too. Pietro himself, he was barely eleven years older than Rose, just a teenager at the time Rose's vision revealed their latent bond. They both deserved the chance to be young, to grow; the time would come for them to be together (again). Also, the bond made Pietro into Rose's fiercest protector, something they were all thankful for, all things considered.

"What did you see Rosie Rose?" Pietro asked her softly, holding her hand.

Loki placed Trixie on the bed, on Rose's other side then, allowing the nine-year-old to cuddle into her mother without letting go of Pietro (her Promised One, she called him sometimes). That seemed to give the girl the security and the courage to speak:

"It's the monster Mama, the one Hercules defeated in the story, the one with many heads." Rose explained very softly. "It's coming, and it has many bodies. They want to burn the world!"

She began sobbing then, pressing her face into her mama's night-robe, while Pietro quietly explained to everyone that they'd been watching the Disney version of Hercules a couple of days earlier. Rose had totally loved it (she loved all of the more modern takes on the children's movies but few of the old ones, not liking it when the princesses did nothing except wait to be saved, it was probably why she liked Hercules, and Megara's part in it), and they all knew what one of Hercules's tasks had been: battling the hydra.

"They're bad Mama, really, really bad. People are going to be hurt, many, many people. And no one will be there to save them." Something seemed to occur to the child then, for she raised her head and looked straight at Trixie. "Will you be their Angel Mama? Will you fight the monster and protect everyone like the guardian angels in the stories?"

"Of course lirimaer (lovely one)," Trixie purposefully used her favored elven endearment in that moment. "I will be their angel…"

Yes she would, though perhaps more than a guardian angel, she'd be one of death. Ever since the attack that ended with her in a wheelchair the world at large seemed to have forgotten completely about the girl they'd once called the 'Angel of Death'. Trixie Stark was still a public figure, still doing her part with SI to help improve the company and the world at large, but it was as if somehow her status as paraplegic meant the press no longer dared mess with her like they had in the past. Trixie was thankful for that for the most part, even if she knew it wasn't something they did out of respect, but rather pity. As if being in a wheelchair meant that she could no longer stand up for herself, even if only figuratively. Perhaps it was time the world remembered who she truly was, who she'd always been…

**xXx**

They always knew it wouldn't be easy, taking down HYDRA. Knew from the start that SHIELD was only one part of the problem, that it was much bigger than that. It was why James, Sif, Ylva and Fenrir, during their travels, they weren't just getting to know the world and having fun, they were also creating a network, a piece at a time. An alliance of gifted around the world that would help them fight when the moment came.

It all started with four simultaneous assassination attempts. In one night Nick Fury was officially killed (he wasn't really, Helena knew that much); Sharon Carter, Marge's granddaughter was in the hospital, and it was bad; Steve Rogers had managed to fight back, killing one of his attackers in self-defense, while the second one escaped; finally, Tony dealt with the one sent after him and his family decisively.

"The Death Squad is out." James stated on the video-call when they all got in touch.

They all knew who he meant. The 'other' Winter Soldiers, the ones who'd been the worst killers in the world, even before HYDRA recruited, trained and enhanced them. They couldn't be fully controlled, so in the end they'd been put in the ice and practically forgotten about. It wasn't that surprising to have them woken when the original Soldier was no longer in their grasp. Though a part of James was still happy to be elsewhere.

"Well, two are dead, that leaves us with three." Tony stated, he'd long-since hacked SHIELD and knew most of what was going on. "I think we all know this is it. This is how it starts."

"And we'll be the ones ending it." Loki finished for him.

"Yeah." Tony nodded, then turned to those on the other side of the phone. "We'll be heading to Washington, deal with things over there."

"Please do." James nodded. "God only knows the mess Stevie will end up creating if he's left to handle it all on his own. There was a reason why Carter and I were the ones to make the battle-plans back in the war. Or, you know, your old man."

Several people snorted at that comment, but no one disagreed.

"Grant called me." Trixie announced, having just gotten off the phone herself. "He's requesting sanctuary. Apparently Garrett went off the bend or something, Grant knocked him out but his team are demanding answers. He's sure they won't believe him until there's proof."

"He'll probably want to help too." Tony considered, then let out a sigh. "That boy has spent more years undercover than any other SHIELD Agent in history, he deserves to help bring this to an end, once and for all."

"I know." Trixie agreed completely with him. "Loki and I are heading there right away. Then, after the explanations are finished we'll be taking him, and whoever in his team is willing to join us, with us to Washington."

"We'll meet you there." Tony agreed.

"Well, the plan for the rest of SHIELD is ready to go." Pepper informed them solemnly. "When you're ready."

"Now." Tony and Trixie stated in unison.

JARVIS, FRIDAY and JOCASTA (a smaller, less elaborate AI, which had been created with the sole mission to infiltrate SHIELD and help deal with the matter of HYDRA) answered in unison:

"Protocol Storm initiated."

The Protocol Storm was quite simple and a real piece of genius. Simply put, every single Agent, not just of SHIELD but of any and every Intelligence Agency they had gotten proof had been compromised, would receive the same message: 'Storm is coming, all agents head to closest refuge immediately'. It was a rather simple message, coded, it meant that something was coming and all who received it were to extract themselves from whatever mission they were currently in, no matter the status of it, and head to the closest safe-house. With help from the X-Men and a number of other gifted worldwide, they'd managed to booby trap the ventilation in those safe-houses with a sleeping gas. Then a trusted superior (those JOCASTA had been able to find proof were not HYDRA) would receive a file detailing what was going on exactly, what had been done thus far and what they could expect in the coming days. The Starks had plans for dealing with SHIELD, but the CIA, FBI, Interpol, etc., they'd leave to the people in charge whom they were reasonably sure could be trusted.

Tony was heading to Washington too, on the jet, with Edward Jarvis (Vision's civilian identity, chosen as that was who his soul belonged to) and the twins; they'd tried to keep them out of things, but they were nineteen and had the right to make their own choices (while Wanda and Pietro had never taken the Stark name, in part because they wanted to honor their birth-parents by remaining Maximoffs, and in part because Tony believed it'd be safer for them that way, they were very proud to be Tony's and Pepper's children, Trixie's and Aylen's siblings; and they were ready to stand by their family and fight to protect the world). Though first they would be making a quick visit to his Aunt Marge at the Home, make sure that she wasn't being targeted.

When Loki and Trixie came out of the Shadow Paths and onto the Bus (which was a bit tricky, considering how high in the air it was), Trixie had to raise a shield immediately as shots were aimed their way.

"What the freaking hell?!" She demanded, irritated.

"Angel?!" Grant called, shocked. "Stop shooting, that's my cousin!"

That was enough to make them stop, but certainly not to stop the next exclamation.

"That's Trixie Stark!" The Scottish voice of a man named Leo Fitz called out, shock evident in his voice.

"Trixie Stark is your cousin?!" The British voice of his partner, Jemma Simmons, exclaimed as a sort-of follow up.

"Yes!" Grant rose from his position behind a couch at the same time he holstered his gun. Then he turned to the young woman in the wheelchair. "Are you alright? Why the hell did you decide to drop on us like that?" Even as he asked the question he was already looking her up and down, seeking to make sure.

"I'm just fine, and time is of essence." Trixie answered succinctly. "We need to be in DC by morning. All hell's about to break lose."

"Yeah, that's kind of what I said…" Grant began.

"You gave a civilian highly classified information about SHIELD?!" A woman of Chinese descent whom they'd all eventually learn was called Melinda May demanded.

"Classified…" Grant echoed, then interrupted himself and snorted. "May, they know more about what's going on than any of you do! Than any of us do, really."

"And why is that, huh?" The youngest member of the group, a girl in her early twenties, also of Chinese descent, demanded hotly. "You're the one who chose to keep secrets Ward. We're supposed to be your team!"

"Yes Skye, you're my team, but you've been my team for a year and a half; they're my family and have been so for much longer than that." Grant tried to placate her. "You're important to me, I will not deny that. But until recently I wasn't sure how much I could trust you. I couldn't be sure you weren't HYDRA. This… I've been carrying this for over a decade! And all along, Angel and the family have been all the support I've had."

"Why isn't this family connection in any of your files?" The team-leader, Agent Phil Coulson, one of the best in SHIELD, and who was legally dead, wanted to know.

"Dad made sure it wasn't, it was safer for Grant that way, and for Tommy once he managed to get out from that freak-show the Wards call a family." Trixie stated.

"Hey!" Skye and the science pair called out.

"Oh, don't take offense on my account, she's totally right." Grant deadpanned. Then turned to Phil to clarify. "Trixie's mother was Trisha Wilson, born Patricia Ward, she changed her name when she ran away from the family to attend Juilliard and become a musician. When Aunt Trisha died, Trixie came to us as my father was her brother, Trixie's only family. We met Uncle Tony when he and Howard Stark went to pick up Trixie. I remember being so happy for her, that she'd get to have a real family, a good family; and at the same time so sad, because they couldn't take me and Tommy as well."

"What is that supposed to mean?" May asked, not liking the implications.

"Lets just say that the whole 'idyllic family' picture the Wards love to portray is nothing more than a facade." Grant's expression twisted a bit as he admitted that. "Mother is obsessive and abusive, father only cares about doing what's expected and projecting a good image, and Christian… he's the worst of both of them combined. Tommy got so lucky when he got out…"

"And you?" Skye asked, voice small. "Did you get out?"

"For a value of it." Grant shrugged. "It's a long story, and most of it isn't really important anymore. I did manage to get away from the Wards, and that was when I met John Garrett."

"Whom you claim is HYDRA…" May didn't sound too convinced.

"Oh he is alright." Trixie scoffed. "The man, and I use the term very loosely here, has more skeletons in his closet than most serial killers!"

To prove her point Trixie pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket. With FRIDAY's help it was easy enough to take over the Bus's systems (she had done that for the most part from the moment they arrived, making sure there would be no record of hers and Loki's presence on the plane) and show them pictures, files, even some videos; all which put together gave them a very different look on Agent John Garrett.

Grant's team began cursing almost from the moment they laid eyes on all the material. It worked though, as something there finally seemed to convince them.

"How can we help?" It was Coulson who asked the question, though by their expressions it was quite obvious that the rest of the team was behind him 100%.

"Well for starters, we need to get to DC before morning." Trixie stated. "And I can tell you right now Luke's not going to be able to get us all there the way we got here."

"We can take the quinjet Garrett used to get here." Grant suggested.

"It'd would also probably be a good idea to get off this plane, before Hand pulls us all the way to the Hub." Skye chose that exact moment to remind everyone of their current circumstances.

"What are we waiting for then?" Trixie asked. "Lets get moving people."

Five minutes later the Bus was empty save for the unconscious John Garrett cuffed inside the containment room of the plane; copies of the files detailing his crimes still showing up on most of the screens in the Command Center. Far as JOCASTA had found out, Victoria Hand was a good, honest woman, if not exactly supportive of gifted, she at least wasn't HYDRA. So they all believed they could trust her to deal with Garrett, and with those in the Hub. In any case, they had bigger fish to fry.

**xXx**

Trixie and Loki (in his guise as Luke, with his sun-bleached hair, crisp-white button up, royal-blue two piece suit and no tie) arrived to the Triskellion at about the same time as Pierce stood there, welcoming the members of the World Security Council. Of course, officially she had no idea who the two men and the woman were, other than somehow connected to SHIELD. The truth about their identities and position in SHIELD was just one of many things the Starks had learned through JOCASTA.

"Mr. Pierce." She called, her voice full of authority and entitlement, as was expected of the heiress of Tony Stark and one of the future owners of SI. "I hope you appreciate the changes we've had to make to our schedule and not keep me waiting, traffic in this city was already bad enough. Both my husband and I have a lot to do and little time to do it."

The surprise lasted all of a fraction of a second, and nothing was revealed on any expression, but then again, she didn't need such tells when she could sense the emotions as clearly as people could see the world around them. What she couldn't help but notice was that Pierce wasn't the only one surprised; while three of the Councilors were anywhere from vaguely curious regarding her presence to annoyed by the interruption, Hawley had been definitely rattled by her arrival. Also, she wasn't Pamela Hawley. Trixie had never met the British Councilwoman, but she had certainly met the woman hiding behind the mask right then, had met her when SHIELD thought they could get a mole not just into SI but their inner circle. They had no problem letting the woman going by the name of Natalie Rushman work in Legal, had even given her the chance to apply to the position of PA, if only to see how far she and her employers were willing to go. Still, they always knew who she was and never allowed her to find out so much as a morsel of information on any of them. Eventually the woman had gone, citing some emergency with family in the East Coast. The Starks didn't believe her, but they didn't care either. Just let her go.

*It would seem someone has finally caught onto the snakes in the grass.* Trixie muttered mentally with no little sarcasm.

*It was about time.* Loki scoffed.

*And what do you wanna bet they've no plan to deal with things beyond this building?* Trixie replied. *No plans for the rest of SHIELD much less the rest of the world.*

*They cannot be that blind.* Though even as he said it, Loki knew they most definitely could. His parents had been that blind after all, even if they had the excuse of the side-effects of an enchantment affecting them.

*These are the same people who are so interested in the weapons my father can build for them.* Trixie reminded him. *Who claimed to be studying the Tesseract for the energy, yet all they really did all those years they had it was build weapons! If you hadn't taken it when you did…*

It was Jane who'd brought the Tesseract to their attention, even if she herself hadn't known what the blue glowing cube was exactly at the time. Realizing the double risk the relic in the hands of SHIELD implied: both the use they might give to it, and he way the humans' use of it might end up calling the attention of the wrong kind of individuals, made the Starks decide it couldn't be allowed to continue. Tony had considered stepping in, but in the end it was much easier for Loki to slip in and out unnoticed… unnoticed but for the way that the Tesseract was suddenly gone. It had been placed in a secure magical safe, one no one outside their family knew of, though only Loki and Trixie could truly access it.

Thankfully, the experience had helped when Jane herself came across the Aether the following year. That, and the fact that she hadn't been alone. Darcy had been able to interfere with her gift before the Aether could possess Jane. Giving them time for Loki to get there and contain the Infinity Stone before anyone was affected. Then he'd made sure to seal it and safe-guard it too.

"Of course Ms. Stark." Pierce was moving fairly quickly. "If you'd follow us."

It surprised no one at all when Pierce insisted on Trixie leaving her bodyguard behind. It was ironic because while most of the public had loved the love story between the rich heiress and the bodyguard; SHIELD was convinced that it was all just a ploy to keep the two of them close without others suspecting. They made such a show about not buying the 'story'. She'd known Pierce followed that ideology from the moment he called her Ms. Stark, rather than Mrs. Serrure or even Mrs. Stark-Serrure (which was actually her name: Beatrix Mariah Stark-Serrure).

*It's alright,* She assured her match mentally. *I can handle this part of the mission on my own. Skye's a hell of a hacker and she'll deal with the tech, Grant will make sure she gets to where she needs to go. FitzSimmons will see about putting as many agents to sleep as they possibly can, May will make sure they get to where they need; the twins will handle the rest of the agents. That still leaves the Death Squad. Two might be dead, but that means there are still three alive, and they're likely in the building. Dad and the Captain could use your help on that front.*

*If you need me, call.* He insisted.

*If I need you you'll probably know before I can even think about calling you.* She pointed out with a small smile.

Loki scoffed mentally, wordlessly admitting she was right. Their bond was that strong. It still felt wrong to let go of his match's wheelchair, let her surround herself with potential enemies. Though one thing Trixie did not allow was for any of them to to get behind her; it wasn't like she needed anyone to push her chair, it was electrical and powered by micro arc-reactors. The most advanced ever created, even more so than the one Tony had gifted his Uncle Charles… then again, hers had some special tricks that were just meant for her.

**xXx**

In the end, the plan went almost without a hitch (almost being the operative word, and the hitch… that was more complicated). Rogers' very dramatic speech over the PA system had kick-started things. Pierce wasn't able to hide his surprise and his annoyance when the helicarriers failed to take off, even Natasha (still disguised as Hawley) was surprised by that one. Trixie couldn't help but think them a bunch of idiots, even those supposedly working to save the world, what had they been planning, if not keeping the carriers from launching in the first place? Taking them over? Getting control over the weapons? To attack who exactly? Weapons like those carriers shouldn't be controlled, not by anyone, they shouldn't exist. It wasn't even about HYDRA, or not just about them anyway. No one should have that much power, the ability to kill that many people, because the bad guys, well they were clearly bad, but the good ones could always be either taken out, corrupted or supplanted, so in the end there were no guarantees that the weapons would be used by the right people. It was why her dad had limited the kind of weapons SI produced, kept the most destructive ideas from ever coming to fruition. He wasn't going to risk the wrong people getting their hands on his weapons, not again (he knew all too well the kind of pain they could cause, as did the rest of them).

Trixie let Natasha handle things for a bit as she took down the HYDRA Agents in the room and then very dramatically revealed herself. Though when she headed to the computer… JOCASTA's voice in her ear told her exactly what the Black Widow was trying to do, and the paraplejic woman couldn't believe anyone, especially someone who was supposed to be one of the world's best spies, could be that stupid. JOCASTA certainly was clever enough to know it was a very bad idea to allow something like that, and she was embedded deep enough in SHIELD's systems to ensure it wouldn't happen. Which clearly threw a spanner into the Black Widow's plans… and Fury's, who made his own very dramatic entrance less than a minute later.

Trixie sensed Pierce's intentions before he had a chance to do anything. Still, it was hard to protect people when she had no idea where the threat was coming from. Rockwell was injured, though thankfully she managed to call on her magic just in time to keep him from getting killed. Then she ensured Pierce wouldn't be able to try the same trick with the rest of those present.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Pierce demanded, loudly.

He was angry, furious even; but more than that, he was desperate. Which wasn't a good thing. Trixie should have remembered it, how bad an idea it was to leave someone with seemingly no way out… Pierce did the last thing the empath could have ever expected. He was already quite close to her, had been using her as a human shield, somewhat, since Fury's arrival. He'd even been pulling at her wheelchair to keep her with him as he headed to the closest exit.

"Do you honestly think you have any chance at making it out of here alive?" Fury demanded. "Even if you make it out of the building, we'll find a way to break through the encryption sooner or later. Then the whole world will know the truth, and you will have nowhere to hide."

Trixie really wanted to roll her eyes at that. Weren't they thinking about the rest of SHIELD? About all the people who were actually good and would be affected, completely ruined, if not actually killed, if all of SHIELD's information got dumped into the internet like they planned? Not like they'd ever be able to get past JOCASTA, but still. And in any case, Pierce wouldn't be leaving the building, her family would make sure of that.

Trixie didn't put up much resistance when Pierce manhandled her to the helipad just outside his office. And she knew that only contributed to the view people had of her. Most people when they saw her in that wheelchair immediately considered her little more than a damsel in distress, a liability. For the most part she didn't care; even when a reporter had called her a 'princess in the tower' when she hardly had a public appearance her first year after the assassination attempts, she just ignored them, they didn't matter to her. Neither did those in SHIELD really, though she still felt frustrated that people who were supposed to be highly trained spies wouldn't realize that she was much too calm for a hostage. The only reason why she'd allowed Pierce to get away with as much as he did, was because she was waiting to see what else they might get, what he might give away in his desperation to escape justice.

Also, despite her little trick with the supposedly biometric clips, no one had yet truly realized what she was capable of and while she wasn't the slightest bit ashamed of her status as a gifted, the less people who knew what she could do, the better.

Pierce called on a helicopter and immediately Trixie's mind began working out the best way to use that to her advantage. What she wasn't counting on was the man who suddenly burst out of the door leading to the emergency stairs and straight onto the helipad, gun already in hand and shooting towards the approaching chopper (She'd eventually learn he was Sam Wilson, the Falcon, Rogers had recruited him to help; he'd been on aerial back-up for the fight against the Death Squad, when Deputy Director Hill told him about STRIKE and how they were heading towards Pierce's office. He set off to cut them off, only to find the twins already engaged. So Wilson decided to take the opportunity to go to the office himself and provide backup). A lucky shot hit the chooper just right, making it go down. Pierce was furious. He pulled out a gun and shot at Wilson; the bullet went through him, just bellow his clavicle, missing the bone and most arteries and veins by millimeters, though it completely destroyed his flight-tech on the way out.

Romanoff and Fury rushed to him. They couldn't exactly shoot at Pierce from inside the office, the glass was more than just bullet-proof.

"If I'm going down I won't be the only one!" Pierce snarled viciously.

That was where Trixie's planning failed her. She'd completely forgotten how dangerous a cornered enemy could be, especially one who believed himself with nothing left to lose. She really wasn't expecting it when Pierce took hold of her and then bodily threw her off the helipad, wheelchair and all.

Falcon cried out in horror, him and Romanoff rushing to the edge of the helipad, as if seeking some way to help, while Fury just raised his gun and pointed it at Pierce's head. He opened his mouth to say something, when suddenly they all heard the same, unexpected sound, something almost like the flapping of wings… big, heavy wings…

"…_if you cannot learn to walk again, then I'll teach you how to fly!" _

That was what her dad had said, those were his exact words, all those years prior, when it became clear she wouldn't be walking again. Even with all that Idunn's golden apples had done for her, she could barely stand, maybe give a handful of steps, but nothing more. It was unlikely she'd ever truly walk, not while she remained human anyway; and there was no way she was giving up the life she had, not while her family still lived. So she'd accepted her limitations, taking the bad with the good (and her family was definitely good). Her dad kept his promise though, he gave her a pair of beautiful wings to fly with.

No one other than the family knew it, but her wheelchair was made of a very particular mix of metals: titanium as a base, synthetic vibranium for its strength, a tiny bit of mithril for both the flexibility and to allow the protective spells to be woven more easily into it, and nth metal to allow them to fly (she would have needed much bigger wings, or repulsors like those in her dad's suit otherwise). The last had been a gift from a man called Carter Hall, the reincarnation of a man she and Loki had known a lifetime prior, who sometimes went by the alter-ego of Hawkman, and had a suit to match the name. He apparently had owed a debt to Helena, for saving his pregnant wife Shayera (and thus their daughter Kendra) and paid it by giving Tony just enough nth metal to ensure her wings truly would make her fly…

All that was needed was a thought and mid-fall her wheelchair changed, pieces held onto her, forming a harness, and from there, metallic wings took form and then snapped open. Then it was simply a matter of willing herself back up…

"That's impossible…" Several of those present breathed out as they saw her rise.

"Nothing is impossible for us Starks." Trixie declared with a smirk. "Now tell me Secretary Pierce, do you remember what the press used to call me, before the wheelchair I mean?"

Pierce didn't answer, seemingly still too shocked at her.

"Angel of Death." It was Romanoff who spoke up. "They called you Angel of Death."

"Precisely." Trixie nodded in satisfaction. "And I'm the Angel who's come to make sure justice is served. On every single one of you."

"We're the good guys." Wilson defended.

"Are you?" Trixie challenged. "You have everything to go against HYDRA, but tell me one thing Mr. Wilson. What about the loyal Agents? How are you protecting the innocents?"

Wilson had no response for that, and it clearly bothered him. Fury and Romanoff on the other hand remained imperturbable; they probably saw all those agents as nothing more than collateral damage, acceptable losses, whatever idiotic turn of phrase they might choose to use.

"You're the reason we cannot get into the system." Romanoff realized.

"You cannot do that!" Fury complained. "You have no authority here!"

"You alone won't be able to continue this for long." Pierce hissed.

"That's what you think…" Trixie couldn't help but smirk at Fury before turning to Pierce. "And whoever said I was alone?"

As if that were some kind of signal, suddenly the twins were right there. Having followed the same route Wilson had taken. Loki appeared on the edge of the rooftop of the nearest building, in full battle regalia (which made it so no one truly recognized him as her husband); and finally, Iron Man joined her, hovering to her right. Coulson and his team had chosen to keep out of that particular meeting.

Tony gave the gaping onlookers just long enough to take them in before he snapped open his helmet, revealing himself.

"Stark?!" Fury was so shocked he just couldn't hide it.

"What the hell is this?!" Romanoff snarled.

"This is me, us, making sure you won't finish what HYDRA started." Tony said bluntly. "This is me taking over."

It was insane, absolutely insane, but still part of the plan. Because it turned out that SHIELD was less of a government Agency and more of a privately owned one, even if no one had known about it… no one except Tony that was. After the SSR and Division X (the two organizations that were considered SHIELD's predecessors) were shut in the late forties and early sixties respectively, Howard pushed for some of their activities to continue, mainly the searches for Captain America. So he'd funded things out of his own pocket. That, along with the fact that he and Marge Carter-Sholto had built SHIELD all on their own (their own work and their own dime) meant that while SHIELD had worked with the government since its inception in the eighties, it had never truly been a government agency).

Howard Stark had revealed everything to Tony on 1991, less than three months before his and Maria's death. Not because he expected Tony to do anything, but so Tony would be aware, and able to protect himself if it ever became necessary. Because while Howard believed in SHIELD, in the reasons that had brought him, Marge, Phillips, Sholto and a handful of their friends to build it, he knew all too well that things could change. And if the day ever came when SHIELD became a problem, someone needed to be ready to deal with it.

Tony never wanted to take charge. He was perfectly happy letting the protocols his father put in place to keep funding and ensure none of it would ever affect the family or SI continue as they were… until Grant first got in touch with him after the fire-juvie-Garrett fiasco-chain and told him what was going on exactly inside SHIELD. Tony knew then what he'd have to do eventually. Though even then he kept trying by all means to find an alternative. He'd even considered simply shutting down SHIELD; or even letting Rogers and co. go ahead with their stupid plan and bring SHIELD down themselves (though not without making sure they could get all the innocent Agents out in time). But once again he remembered the message Charles had passed along all those years ago. His own granddaughter had said something to that effect at some point:

"_To fight a war you need both weapons and shields…" _

And maybe they were talking about SHIELD, maybe it had only been about SI… but Tony just couldn't risk it. So he'd made his plan. He'd even gotten Aunt Marge to sign the necessary documents (and back-dated them, because she was supposed to be senile and not in her right mind; nevermind that it was all a ploy, what she actually had was beginning of Alzheimer's, and as she forgot some things she sometimes ended making comments that could be dangerous, that might lead to someone discovering she wasn't truly Peggy Carter, that the real Peggy Carter had died decades ago and Marge was just a very good friend who agreed to take her place because the world just wasn't ready to be without her; it certainly needed Peggy more than it would ever need Marge Cartier… and the family, both the Carter-Sholtos, and the Starks, knew the truth, so that was enough).

And just like that, Tony Stark took over SHIELD…

**xXx**

It wasn't that easy, not at all. The government didn't like hearing that a single man 'owned' such a big and dangerous organization as was SHIELD. Even Tony Stark, who was known across the world as the creator of the best weapons, defensive equipment, tech, medical things and, lately, clean energy as well; a man who'd found out someone was dealing under the table in his company and ensured there would be justice, that sought to protect. A family man, married with four children (two of those adopted, orphans victims of the weapons Obadiah Stane had sold in the black-market) and a grand-child. CEO of a multi-billion international company that kept more people employed than any other three companies put together. And all the employees were happy with their salary and the way they were treated. A man who was known for pressing for equality in all things, whose own children had all (or almost all, with Aylen it was a suspicion but nothing had been proven yet) revealed themselves as gifted.

In many ways Tony Stark was probably the ideal man to have that much power… but the government had always hated depending on one man.

"You know, that's it, that's enough." Tony cut off the Head of the government committee that had been harassing him for over half an hour. "Lets make something very clear ladies and gentlemen. I don't care for 'owning' SHIELD. Never have. Unless you missed it, or are being foolish, I didn't 'buy' SHIELD last week, or anything like that. For all intents and purposes I've owned SHIELD for years. It just never came up before. It didn't come up because there was no need for me to get involved. There was a need now, HYDRA made it necessary. Now, as for what my intentions are, because that apparently worries you all a lot… I intend to convince the right kind of people to take over. To ensure HYDRA is well and truly gone, and go back to what they do best. Protect our world. There are some things that won't be tolerated anymore. Gifted will not be marginalized, or imprisoned, simply for being gifted. If they commit a crime of course they will pay. Justice will be done. But just being gifted is no crime, never has been, never will be as long as I have a say."

"And what about your suit?" Another Senator asked. "What some are calling the Iron Man?"

"The suit is a part of me." Tony answered evenly. "It is me. Much as my daughter is the Angel of Death. In my attempts to give her a way to walk, I created a lot, most of what Stark Medical sells nowadays actually. I also created the suit. It is not a weapon, it's not for sale." He saw someone open their mouth. "And before someone complains. There are very few people in this world who would be able to control that suit, I can do it, because I'm a genius, and the fact that I created it means that I intimately understand how and why it works. No one else would have that. I intend to use the Iron Man armor to protect, that's all."

"Will you become a superhero Mr. Stark?" Someone from the back called.

"I don't plan to, no." Tony answered sincerely. "You all do remember that I'm in my forties, yes? Also, my wife would kill me if I even thought about putting myself in that kind of danger." He chuckled to himself, and he wasn't the only one. "I do intend to help, though. When it's necessary. I know my kids plan on doing the same. We have no interest in being heroes, but we will not ignore those who might need us either. Just like we didn't now. It's impossible to know what might happen in the future, but if there's a need, we'll be there."

The next Senator pushed the session back to SHIELD matters. Where Tony explained that he already had people in mind to take the reigns. It had taken a hell of a long time but he'd managed to convince Phil Coulson to do it. Grant had vouched for the man, for his whole team, really. The fact that they'd been on the Bus practically nonstop for a year and a half meant that Coulson, May and the rest had gotten the chance to see things from a different perspective, to see where SHIELD was doing things the wrong way. And thus they had a unique perspective, on how to handle both sides. Also, he'd assigned Darcy to serve as liaison until such a time when he was sure everything would be alright (Jane no longer needed Darcy, as she was taking off for Asgard, to marry Thor and become crown princess; and while she'd be visiting, Tony knew Darcy would want more than to just be waiting for Jane to drop by, and the young woman had the potential to be a lot more than a 'glorified babysitter').

**xXx**

Tony was exhausted when he finally landed in Stark Tower. Automatically walking through the spinning rings that allowed JARVIS to take the armor off him. His family (and it was his whole family, there, together and happy, including Grant, who'd finally changed his name to Grant Wilson, though he planned on staying in SHIELD, the team would be helping Coulson with his new duties) was there, waiting for him before starting dinner.

It was a very animated affair. The adults were happy that the thing with HYDRA was finally over, after so many years worrying and preparing. And the kids were all having a lot of fun. And it wasn't even just those who could be considered Starks (by blood and/or name), the Banners were there too, Happy, Grant and his team, Darcy, Thor, Jane (Coulson and co. had nearly had an apoplexy when meeting the Asgardians, and when knowing just how long Tony had known there was life in other worlds and hadn't said a thing about it… though they all agreed it would have been catastrophic if HYDRA had found out about that). Rogers was there too, in a corner of the room, accompanied by James (that was one particular meeting he was hell glad he'd missed, according to what Trixie had sensed it had been so heavy on the feels she chose to go for a ride and leave the tower for a few hours) and Sif. He really hoped those two, and perhaps Ylva and Fenrir, would take the Captain under their wing, help him adapt to the modern world, because it was painfully clear to Tony that SHIELD hadn't so much as tried (and if they did, they did an awful job at it); Sharon tried, but there was only so much she alone could do.

When Trixie began playing the piano (there was one just inside the penthouse, and the sound carried just fine onto the viewing deck, where they were all sharing drinks and chatting after the hearty meal) and then singing, it surprised no one at all. Trixie singing was a constant in the lives of all who knew her, there was a reason Loki liked calling her Nightingale, though most of the others tended to call her Angel, like Tony himself did. It was something that surprised no one (unless they'd never heard her before). What did still manage to surprise them, was the effect some of her songs tended to have on those who listened to her, and that night was no exception:

"I wanna leave my footprints on the sands of time

Know there was something that, meant something that I left behind

When I leave this world, I'll leave no regrets

Leave something to remember, so they won't forget"

"I was here

I lived, I loved

I was here

I did, I've done everything that I wanted

And it was more than I thought it would be

I will leave my mark so everyone will know

I was here"

"I wanna say I lived each day, until I die

And know that I meant something in somebody's life

The hearts I have touched will be the proof that I leave

That I made a difference, and this world will see"

"I was here

I lived, I loved

I was here

I did, I've done everything that I wanted

And it was more than I thought it would be

I will leave my mark so everyone will know"

Tony loved his family, every single member of it, it didn't matter how they'd come to be family, just that they were. He couldn't imagine his life without even one of them in it… it didn't matter how insane things might get every once in a while (or perhaps more often than that), they were family, they were the reason he did everything he did. To help them, to protect them, to keep the world they lived in safe… Tony Stark was the man he was, he lead the life he did, (the good, the bad and everything in between) all because of his family, and he wouldn't change a thing about it.

"I was here

I lived, I loved

I was here

I did, I've done everything that I wanted

And it was more than I thought it would be

I will leave my mark so everyone will know

I was here"

"I just want them to know

That I gave my all, did my best

Brought someone some happiness

Left this world a little better just because

I was here"

"I was here

I lived, I loved

I was here

I did, I've done everything that I wanted

And it was more than I thought it would be

I wanna leave my mark so everyone will know"

"I was here

I lived (I lived), I loved

I was here

I did (I did), I've done

I was here

I lived (I lived), I loved (I loved)

I was here (oh)

I did, I've done

I was here"

* * *

So... what do you think? Different enough to other AUs? I hope you'll enjoyed it.

We're quickly approaching the end of this verse. Only two more AUs to go (and they're both written already)... but the first of those is probably the longest AU I ever wrote! In three weeks we're going back to Teen Wolf (and staying there for five!) to see how things would have gone if Nightingale had been reincarnated as the sole human member of a wolf pack... Anyone wanna guess? If anyone wanna give it a try I'll give special mention to those that guess right!

Please don't forget to review/comment and like/kudo!

See ya around!


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